J. Michael Straczynski

Richard Trueblood

Blithely submitting to the request of an alien race they just met (and not even face-to-face, but over a loudspeaker), Eternian heroes and villains are set to have a representative member of each party chosen for a game to analyze the nature of good and evil. But all will not be as you expect in these games!

Cringer, Orko, Fisto, Prince Adam (He-Man), Man-at-Arms

Beast Man, Spikor, Mer-Man, Skeletor

Bendari (voice only), Eternian citizens, blue bird, Ro, robot

flying saucer, drilling machine

The hero to which you probably don't want to offer a friendly handshake, Fisto, is getting the grand tour of the royal palace of Eternos for his first official visit. In the open courtyard, Prince Adam thrills Fisto with a "race" between Cringer and Orko, where the first of the two to move loses. Cringer has the game stolen from him when he's the second of them to speak - since people can actually see his mouth move, he is judged the loser. Man-at-Arms has just been forced into agreeing with Fisto that this contest was "excellent" when a giant flying saucer arrives in the skies overhead!

The unseen occupants of the vessel announce themselves as the Bendari, an alien race who have no real understanding of good and evil (since, as they claim, they are one hundred percent good, all the time). To better educate themselves on these concepts, they propose an experiment: the Bendari will choose the perfect representatives of good and evil from among the Eternians, and have them play a game - the winner will determine the superiority of the represented side. They will return to choose the two players tomorrow at noon.

As the Bendari depart, the heroes consider amongst themselves who's likely to be given the honor of playing for Good. Orko thinks maybe Fisto has a chance, but he modestly demurs: everyone must know who the chosen hero will be. Over in Snake Mountain, Skeletor thinks he knows: He-Man! Having apparently heard the whole Bendari spiel, the Evil Warriors are making their own plans for winning the game. Skeletor has developed a machine - the evil-gizer - that will make anyone who stands inside ten times more evil, thus ensuring they will be chosen. Due to the potential dangers in being subjected to the evil-gizer, Skeletor has decided he doesn't want to be the machine's guinea pig; instead, Spikor is dubbed the "volunteer" for the process after Beast Man and Mer-Man prudently get out of the way.

The next day, we find Prince Adam stuck in an overlong sword practice with Captain Teela. For some reason, he makes a lot of noises about needing to be somewhere else before the Bendari arrive to make their decision; but a stubborn Teela won't let him leave. When the flying saucer shows up, it's Fisto who gets chosen for the contest, the Bendari instruments having failed to detect the presence of He-Man anywhere on the planet (huh, go figure). Over in Snake Mountain, a thoroughly zapped Spikor collapses insensate from the evil-gizer, just in time to be chosen for the side of Evil.

The pair are transported to an open field, perhaps somewhere in the Evergreen Forest, with video footage of them being broadcast to giant screens floating over Eternos (courtesy of the Bendari). The aliens then proceed to map out some rules: the game will involve collecting a series of little orbs. Pressing a button on top of the orb awards points to the pertinent side, with most game pieces being worth 100 points, but one red-colored bonus orb being worth a whopping 2000 points. The players are given wrist locators ("seekers") with arrows to point the way to the nearest game piece. If any competitor is unable to continue, they can be replaced by someone else; and - here's the kicker - while the side of Good has to obey the rules and is not allowed any outside help, Evil can do whatever they want. Skeletor, stationed in a drilling machine plowing through the soil beneath Eternia, is thrilled that his already-formed plan to cheat has basically been sanctioned by the referees.

We see cheating on full display from very early in the game, with Spikor getting assistance from the animal powers of Beast Man (who calls a bird to fetch the first game piece for his fellow lackey) and the webbed limbs of Mer-Man (who knocks Fisto off a floating log and into a river, leaving the way clear for Spikor to nab a second game piece). Sensing that He-Man might need to be on standby in this competition, Man-at-Arms advises Adam to suit up, so he runs off to make a change. He-Man is thus nearby when Skeletor sabotages Fisto's attempt to fetch another game piece from under a stone pyramid. To do it, the still drill-driving villain pops a weight magnifier ray up out of the ground, zapping the pyramid so that it keeps getting heavier the longer Fisto holds it. Seeing his friend in great distress, He-Man swoops in to take the burden, agreeing to the Bendari's terms that he must now take over as the representative of Good. He-Man has the pyramid - and his own problem! For the ray is still in operation, and there are limits to even He-Man's lifting powers. He solves the problem the way he solves most of his problems, by simply punching it away, turning the pyramid into pebbles.

Time passes and the game goes on, and we learn that Spikor has gained a lead of over a thousand points. He-Man knows that it's imperative that he locate the bonus game piece. His wrist locator leads him to a large boulder, and he deduces the piece must be under it; but a robot pops up from behind the rock to tell him that he cannot "approach" the rock by "walking forward." He-Man gets the hint and gets to the rock by walking backward; feeling behind him, he tips the boulder over and finds the bonus piece under it: 2000 points for Good! It now unfolds that there is only one game piece left, and the scores are tied: whoever gets the last orb will be the winner.

Turns out that last piece is up in the branches of a very high tree, and both sides of the contest arrive at the base of said tree at about the same time (Spikor coming fresh from an altercation with an angry Ro, arising from his having mistaken one of its eggs for a game piece). There's a race to the top, but Spikor is just not as good at climbing as his fellow player, and soon finds himself dangling from a branch over a deadly drop. He-Man is within reach of the piece; but can he leave his evil competitor to certain death? No, of course not. The bleeding-heart fool makes his way back down the tree to save Spikor, who immediately betrays his savior by tugging him off the vine he's holding. He-Man lands safely at the foot of the tree; but Spikor is about to claim the game piece and win the game! At this point our hero flexes his brain muscle and realizes that since he can't reach the sphere, he can maybe make the sphere come to him: he gives the tree a firm shake, and the piece falls down, right into his waiting hand. Victory - Good!

Afterwards, the heroes gather in the palace courtyard once again, He-Man having been teleported there, and with the Bendari ship floating over them. The aliens thank the heroes for the object lesson, but they're confused: why did He-Man risk losing the game for the sake of saving his evil opponent? He-Man and Man-at-Arms explain that no game is worth sacrificing one's ideals or causing the injury of others, be they innocent or not. Duncan brazenly declares: "As long as there are good people who are willing to do what their conscience tells them, evil will never win." The evidence behind his claim seems scanty, but the Bendari are willing to take his word for it, and take the important lessons they've gleaned from this real-life arcade game out with them to other galaxies. They bid farewell to the Eternians and fly off.

End with a Joke: Orko, standing amongst the other heroes, casually wonders whether Skeletor learned anything from today's events. Fade to Snake Mountain and Skeletor, who summons Spikor into his presence. The bony villain tells his minion that he's been thinking, and that he thinks he has, in fact, learned an important lesson: "I... HATE... LOSING!!!!"

• Bendari spokesman: People of Eternia, hear us. We are the Bendari, seekers of truth. We come to you with a problem: where we come from there is no evil, only good. But here, the powers you call good and evil are eternally in conflict. / Orko: Boy, he can say that again! / Bendari (laying out today's plot): We wish to understand the difference between good and evil. Therefore, we have arranged for a test - a game, that will help us understand. We shall search among you for the most powerful representatives of good and evil, and they shall be asked to compete in a game to see which is greater.
• Skeletor: Behold - the evil-gizer! It's a little invention I've been toying with. It can increase the evil power of anyone inside it ten times over, making that person the most evil being on Eternia.
• Skeletor: Yes, we'll win this game the old-fashioned way, the tried-and-true way: we'll cheat. (Laughs)
• Man-at-Arms: That's the difference between good and evil: those who are evil will do whatever they have to to win. As long as there are good people who are willing to do what their conscience tells them, evil will never win. ... / Bendari: We shall remember what we have learned here today, and carry it with us to the stars.

• Fisto laughs, head back: At the results of the "race" between Orko and Cringer
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: He doesn't quite get to shaking his fists, but the beginning of the animation seems to be used as he celebrates Spikor's evil-gizing
• Skeletor laughs, head back: At the prospect of cheating

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Man-at-Arms
Man-at-Arms tells us the lesson we should take from this episode is: keep trying, and don't give up. "That's how winners are born." Is that really what we learned, Man-at-Arms? What about all the very successful cheating those Evil Warriors did? And aren't you more likely to be successful if your daddy was rich? How else can you explain Donald Trump, Man-at-Arms? Huh? Explain Donald Trump to me!!! (cries)

Games and gladiators: This episode undeniably falls into this much-used category; just look at the title!

• It's funny that I just found myself referencing MU081's "The Arena" in my review of the previous episode, because the story for this one is basically writer J. Michael Straczynski's rendition of that very same plot (which, as I noted in the lore for MU081, was itself a retelling of a Star Trek episode, which was itself a retelling of a short story!). In this well-trodden story, as in MU081, the Eternians meet the representatives of a powerful and peaceful alien race who decide to pit a pair of Eternians against each other in a symbolic battle of good against evil. Straczynski however very cleverly tweaks the script by playing with our expectations and leaving He-Man and Skeletor out of the initial contest. He also turns it into a "real-life" video game instead of a fight to the death. A video game! Where's my boy Negator?! I miss that smug bastard...
• To flesh out the lineup of villainous lackeys for this episode, Mer-Man is included for the first time since way back in MU091. (As it happens, this will also be the fishy fiend's last appearance in the series. So, I guess, drink him up, people!) In a more central role, and making his third appearance in the series, is Spikor. Though in his previous appearance, MU119, we saw Spikor sporting his toy-accurate trident hand, on this occasion he has reverted to two normal hands - with fingers and everything. (I initially thought this was just plain inconsistency on the part of the animators, but it turns out there's a plot-based reason for Spikor needing two hands: it's so that he can effectively grip a tree branch in the episode's thrilling conclusion. Also, per Wiki Grayskull, it makes it easier for the animators to flip their cels without causing anomalies like those that often happen with Trap Jaw, whose customizable arm tends to mysteriously switch sides on his body.) Spikor is again using the stilted and mechanical-sounding voice heard in his very brief first appearance, in MU107 (in MU119 he greatly increased his threat level by stalking around without speaking).
• Fisto, who will have his own central role in today's story, appears for the fourth time in the series. The implication is made that he is enjoying his very first visit to the royal palace, which I'm not sure would be born out by examining his previous appearances (didn't he show up at the palace for MU075's "To Save Skeletor"?). Fisto also mentions that he's still apparently living in the forest that was the haunt of his old, evil self, detailed in MU070's "Fisto's Forest."
• The scene where Skeletor talks about putting one of his minions into the evil-gizer is very familiar, because it mimics a scene in another recent Straczynski script. In MU121's "The Magic Falls," Skeletor wants a volunteer from among three of his men to steal Randor's Scepter of Power; but when he mentions that the volunteer needs to be expendable, cowardly Beast Man and Trap Jaw quickly drop out. Similarly here, when Skeletor points out that the effects of the evil-gizer might be deleterious, Beast Man and Mer-Man decide they don't want to be the most evil being on Eternia. The difference is that the remaining member of the trio in this episode is not a willing volunteer, like Kobra Khan was in MU121; an anxious Spikor is chosen because he doesn't think to step away quickly enough.
• Teela once again tortures Prince Adam with some lengthy sword practice, just as she did at the beginning of MU108's "Teela's Triumph." In this episode her insistence on training has some more impactful consequences...
• We see Skeletor again making use of the same drilling machine he used to get to the center of Eternia in MU036's "The Search." It was later co-opted and renamed the "Roto-Rocket" by the heroes in MU067; and it showed up most recently as an invention at Station Zeta in MU113's "Happy Birthday Roboto." Why he's using it here is an open question; see my commentary.
• Just a quick shout-out to Beast Man, who I always like to compliment when he manages to do something without screwing up. He uses his beast-talking powers to successfully have a passing bird collect the first of the game pieces for Evil and drop it to Spikor. In a later, less friendly, use of his powers, he convinces another bird to release Spikor from its clutches - therefore dropping him from a great height!
• To help emphasize the video game nature of the contest, Fisto is asked to hop across a set of logs floating downriver, exactly like the frog in Frogger (Konami, 1981). The nearest log kindly swoops into shore and pauses so that he can easily step on it!
• Skeletor's "weight magnifier" ray is a very cool invention - anything hit with the ray just keeps becoming heavier the longer it is held up. Though I was disappointed by the upshot of this gadget's use, I appreciate the cleverness of the device.
• Spikor's accidentally grabbing an egg out of a nest gives us a chance to see another use of the Ro bird character design, introduced all the way back in MU038's "Valley of Power." This version of the Ro is a sort of blue-gray color, unlike the original Ro's more russet hues; but is otherwise identical. We saw this design reused - and renamed "carrock" - in MU078's "Betrayal of Stratos." Here the bird is not given a name, so I decided to just use its original designation.
• Interestingly, though we hear a lot from the Bendari as they project a voice from their floating spacecraft, we never see them. We're left wondering if the spaceship perhaps is the Bendari - some kind of biomechanical entity. Either that, or the animators didn't feel like coming up with a new alien character design today.
• In the final scene, Spikor sheepishly approaches his boss's throne and says, "Yes, Skeletor-or?" Why the heck did he say that? Was he supposed to be nervously stammering? It doesn't sound like it; instead, it sounds like Spikor is trying to add the popular MOTU "-or" suffix to a name that already has it.
• Another episode with the variant ending credits showing a flat-painted Jawbridge.

• Cringer and Orko's little game of "don't move" certainly made things very easy on the wrists of the animators! Suspiciously easy...
• I'm not sure why, but I found the name of Skeletor's gadget, the "evil-gizer," absolutely hilarious. The look of the chamber is slick, and sufficiently sinister to make its purpose clear to anyone who sees it. It's somewhat reminiscent of the creepy mix of the organic and mechanical employed in the creations of H.R. Giger (whom most people will remember as the creator of the xenomorph in the Alien franchise).
• In the scene where Skeletor is introducing the evil-gizer, we get some very expressive and fun character animation on the faces of the minions.
• The Bendari choose Fisto as their avatar for good when He-Man fails to turn up. But aren't there some other pretty good options available? What about Teela? She was good enough to be tapped as the Sorceress-in-training. Or what about Stratos? Man-E-Faces? And - I'm just blue-skying here - but can we consider Ram Man? His head may be thick, but his heart is made of pure gold! (I'm reminded of the amusing scene opening MU061's "Pawns of the Game Master," where the titular master of games considers Ram Man as a possible contender and quickly scraps the idea. Actually, while we're talking about him, Game Master's flying saucer with included arena was fairly similar in size and shape to the Bendari vessel... It would have made for an awesome twist ending to this episode if it turned out that the "Bendari" was actually just Game Master disguising his voice the whole time, gleefully making the Eternians his pawns.)
• Having watched the episode to the end, I also have to question the choice of Spikor as Evil's champion - this time for logistical reasons. As I've noted in the lore section, it seems that the animators felt it necessary to eliminate Spikor's toy-accurate trident hand, so that he would be able to do the necessary climbing around and grasping required for his participation in this scavenger hunt. But if you have to literally change the limbs of your character to fit him into the story, have you really chosen the correct character? Why not bring back Wave 3's Jitsu, who has also already been in the series (as far back as MU009) and is the actual evil counterpart of the big-handed Fisto? Or if you wanted to use a newer toy-based character, why not Wave 4's Stinkor? Though he's smelly, his figure actually had two hands - and this would have made for a fun and fragrant first appearance! Modulok or Two Bad, other Wave 4 figures already appearing on the show, would have also been fine choices. So Spikor's use here is rather baffling.
• Just as in MU081, when the Eternians rolled over without question when presented with the whims of the all-powerful Om, we find them pacifically capitulating to participation in the previously unknown Bendari's experiment. Do you not see that you are mere pawns, manipulated lab rats, being made to play and cavort for these mysterious aliens? Cut your strings, puppets! At least with Om's visit, we saw Man-at-Arms being cautious and warning Randor not to be too welcoming to unknown beings; in this episode, the Bendari fly by in a spaceship without even revealing their physical form, and everyone is just like, "Okay, I guess we're having a game between good and evil today; let's make some popcorn."
• I like the clever and cute way that this episode cuts between Heroic and Evil scenes with dialogue transitions. Early in the episode, Fisto begins a sentence that cuts just before the clearly intended last word, "He-Man;" the word with which Skeletor begins his subsequent Snake Mountain scene. Later, we go directly from Adam and the citizens of Eternos being surprised at the Bendari choosing Spikor for the side of evil, to Skeletor being surprised at Fisto being the good champion. Near the end of the story, Man-at-Arms's comment of "wonderful news" is immediately contrasted by Skeletor's "This is terrible news!" Even the transition to Snake Mountain for the concluding joke is accomplished in a similarly connected manner.
• The Bendari, it turns out, just want to have their challengers play a scavenger hunt game, collecting little globes and pushing the buttons on them to receive points. The game is loaded, not just due to the fact that the organizers basically give Evil free reign to cheat: because of the unbalanced scoring between the normal game pieces (100 points) and the single bonus piece (2000 points), there is really no point in going for the regular pieces at all, and a smart player will go straight for the bonus bit. This is actually very much like the scoring eventually devised for Quidditch in the Harry Potter universe, with the points awarded for catching the Golden Snitch far outweighing that given for regular goals. The difference is that, while the Snitch was much more of a challenge to nab than making a goal, it's not really much harder to find the bonus game piece than to find any of the other pieces (well - He-Man has to work his brain muscle a tad to reach it, but still). It's unclear whether the Bendari did this because they are just terrible at game design, or because they wanted one side to figure out the trick. If it was for the latter reason, they seemingly failed; He-Man happens upon the bonus piece by sheer luck, and not because he specifically goes looking for it.
• By the way, the fact that the Bendari intentionally allow Evil to not follow the rules seems to show that they already understand the difference between Good and Evil, which was the whole reason they were ostensibly running this contest in the first place.
• Fisto shows his ability to lift a huge pyramid of stone, apparently implying that he isn't just a big fist, but also has general super-strength. This is at odds with the figure he cut in his debut episode, MU070. Recall that at one point in that story he was unable to lift a heavy log off his own back without the assistance of a rope and pulley (something that I took issue with in that episode's commentary section, though not for the reasons listed here). Did his change to the good side after that point just automatically make him stronger? Has he been working out a lot at Eternia's Heroic Warrior Gyms since then?
• I think Straczynski's choice to put secondary characters in the main opposing roles in this story was laudably smart and original. One of the cardinal qualities of the He-Man series was its predictability: there are a bunch of things you can count on happening in pretty much every episode. There are so many examples of this predictability that it's hardly worth my listing them here. Half of the information I record for each episode is just pointing out recurrences of things that have happened in other episodes. Though that familiarity generally gives the comforting feeling of settling into a favorite chair, or enjoying a favorite meal, it can sometimes get a bit too repetitive; so putting Fisto and Spikor in the usual parts reserved for He-Man and Skeletor was a fun change-up. It was therefore almost disappointing to see He-Man taking over the contest for Fisto, and the reason he does so seems contrived and unnecessary. Would it really have been cheating for He-Man to just yell out, "Hey Fisto! Why don't you punch that pyramid you're holding with your giant fist?" Let's have a little faith in our friends to pick up the heroic slack, why not? Let He-Man take the back seat for the whole ride for once.
• The lesson we're supposed to take from this episode is, of course, that good will always triumph over evil. The reason stated is good's inherent goodness: He-Man's pausing to save Spikor is seen to be integral to his success. But it totally wasn't, and that's not what today's story has really taught us. Cheating most definitely gave the side of Evil the edge in this contest, and very nearly led to their winning. Even with He-Man happening to come across the bonus game piece to boost his side's score by an unreasonable amount, he barely pulled out the victory. And saving Spikor almost "spiked" his win (if you'll forgive the pun), since it gave the villain the chance to turn the tables on his opponent. I think if we learned anything from this contest, it's that being smarter is better. He-Man earned the bonus piece by figuring out how to approach the rock it was hidden under, and he nabbed the last game piece by realizing he could shake it loose from the tree. So stay in school, kids! And keep cheating! Cheating is fine, as long as it's smart cheating and you can get away with it.
• Now that we've gotten to the end of the episode, it's time to talk about Skeletor. The whole time the contest is going on, we keep cutting back to the bony villain, who is busily drilling underground. I thought this was going to lead up to something, where perhaps Skeletor was using the distraction of the game to drill his way on over to Castle Grayskull, or come up through the floor of the royal throne room and grab some hostages; or maybe he even had an inside tip on where the last game piece was hidden. But none of that happens, so we're left wondering what the heck he was doing underground all that time. The only advantage his side seems to gain from it is Skeletor's fortuitously unseen proximity to Fisto in the scene where the baddie uses his weight magnifier. But this coup ultimately results in He-Man taking over for his friend; so you have to question its value for Evil in the long run! I almost feel like the drilling machine was part of a longer plot that ended up being scrapped for time; but it's also very amusing to think about old Bonehead trundling along underground for seemingly no reason, humming to himself and occasionally checking the progress of the game happening on the surface.
• Another thing I'm wondering is, just how long do the effects of the evil-gizer work, and how exactly do those effects manifest themsevles? Will Spikor now and forever be the most evil being on Eternia? And just what does that entail? Is he stronger than Skeletor (unlikely), or does he just have the loosest morals of anyone in Snake Mountain? Like, he's now the most likely to take candy from babies? Will he be better at coming up with evil plots than the rest of them? Based on his performance in the contest, I don't think so! I think we have to assume that, regardless of the specifics, Skeletor won't want any potential challengers to his position hanging around; so the evil-gizer's effects will either wear off quickly, or Spikor will be forced to undergo some "de-evil-gizing" process - presumably just as excruciating as the initial evil-gizing.
• So obviously I'm left with some questions after viewing this episode; but a story that produces this much analysis is a thought-provoking one, and that's what I like in my MOTU. I've said it before, but I must again tip my hat to Mr. Straczynski for "shaking the tree" with this plot and giving us a battle of good vs. evil which was just a little different than we expected.