Episode 81 – Just the Way You Are

In which Prince Adam gives himself a new and rubbish nickname.

Prince Adam is putting in one of his semi-regular visits to Etheria, this time so he can enjoy the opening of the circus. Not so he can do any rebelling, or anything useful like that. Anyway, the opening scene finds Glimmer making gooey eyes at Adam, having evidently forgotten the love of her life, Romeo, from two episodes ago. Fortunately, a dude called King Darkspur of the Hinterlands arrives at Bright Moon, prompting Glimmer to stomp her stupid feet and storm out.

Prince Adam: “I don’t know who you are, but thanks for getting Glimmer off my back.”

Queen Angela explains to Adora and Adam that Darkspur wants to marry Glimmer, but she’s not interested. Given Darkspur looks like an ogre, wears a strange sailor-like outfit, is about the size of a bus, and has no manners whatsoever, I can’t really blame Glimmer for this. Darkspur’s visit is very brief; he asks Angela for Glimmer’s hand in marriage, is given an emphatic “no” in response, and stumps off after making some vague threats. Despite this having the makings of a kidnapping plot written all over it, no one sees the inevitable coming.

Adora, Adam and Glimmer pop down to watch the circus setting up, where they meet Adora’s friend Drew. Drew is a child who can juggle, but he’s feeling miserable because his father can’t give him all his attention all the time, instead preferring to divide his time equally between his two sons. Drew’s father is very unreasonable. Adora tries to comfort Drew, but he’s far too needy to have any of it, and runs off into the forest to try to prove … well, to try to prove something. I’m not sure what he’s trying to prove, other than that he’s a first-class chump.

Of course, he gets into trouble immediately by trying to cross a rickety old bridge, which collapses under him. Adam and Adora are on the scene within seconds, and Adora comes up with the worst plan ever: “I’ll leap over the ravine and slide down to where Drew is, then you think of a way to get us both up.” This essentially lumbers Adam with having to rescue both of them, which he does with ease; then he gives Adora a stare which conveys both incredulity and passionate loathing.

Prince Adam: “Well, Adora, I can’t say I’m impressed.”

Drew throws a demented tantrum at this stage and storms off into the woods again, where he comes across King Darkspur’s men kidnapping Glimmer. To his credit, he does attempt to stop them, but only ends up getting kidnapped as well for his troubles. Once Adora and Adam hear the news, they determine to rescue Glimmer, but make out that it’ll be far too dangerous to go to Darkspur’s castle without some form of disguise.

Continuing her trend of insane plans, Adora decides that she and Adam had better join the circus and take the circus into the Hinterlands, so they can get a little bit closer to Darkspur’s castle unnoticed. Once there, Adam takes leave of his senses, adopts the name Adam of the Elephants, and uses an elephant to rescue Glimmer, while Adora becomes She-Ra and rescues Drew in a more normal way.

Prince Adam: “Visiting Etheria allows me to shake free of the shackles of sanity.”

When the whole sorry business with King Darkspur is over, there’s a touching final scene in which Drew realises how much his father really does love him. Adora stands there delivering patronising speeches, leaving Adam to fool around with the elephants again. I’m genuinely unsure whether the writers wanted us to think that Adam had gone mad.

In today’s adventure…

Ah, Loo-Kee. A pleasure to see you in that tree. Why can’t you hide underwater, or in an electricity sub-station, or at a nuclear waste disposal site, or somewhere similar? Then you might never bother me again, with your incessant rambling on about how much our parents love us. We understand, thank you, Loo-Kee. We don’t need you to tell us this every single week. Go away.

Character checklist

This little excursion to Etheria is an outing for Adora, Adam, She-Ra, He-Man, Glimmer, Loo-Kee, Drew, Drew’s dad, King Darkspur, King Darkspur’s knights, and loads of people at the circus.

She-Ra: “Go on, Drew. Jump down that hole. I dare you.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

After rescuing Glimmer, Adam decides he’d like to turn into He-Man and cause a bit of unnecessary havoc. He tells Glimmer to “wait over by the wagons. I’ll meet you there later.” If I were Glimmer, I’d be saying, “No, Adam. Let’s go home now. There’s absolutely no reason to stay here, except for the fact that He-Man is contractually obliged to appear.”

Speaking of Glimmer, it’s possibly worth noting that she has another of her semi-regular moments where she forgets to put her trousers on. Or maybe she’s only pretending to forget, and is instead attempting to seduce Prince Adam. And while we’re on the subject of Adam, is it just me or are his arms far too long in the below picture?

Adora: “There’s nothing wrong with not wearing trousers, Glimmer. I never do.”

Insults

It’s not a good week for King Darkspur’s guards, who are addressed as “fools” by King Darkspur  and as “bozos” by She-Ra. Darkspur also finds time to direct a more vicious “fool” at a specific one of his guards, a chap who seems to be called Dark.

Does it have the Power?

The above summary makes this episode sound truly dreadful, which it isn’t. It’s actually only quite bad. It feels like Glimmer is literally only in this series so she can get captured every week, and Darkspur is hardly the most interesting baddy in the world. Drew’s story is similarly familiar, although I did appreciate that he never actually ran away; he just threw a few tantrums and hung out in the forest being upset. The circus business was just slightly weird, and Adam’s attempt at rebranding himself as Adam of the Elephants was mildly odd. I think we could safely say this one’s a miss.

Bonus Update: He-Man and Skeletor go to Georgia

He-Man went to Armenia and got lost; Skeletor went to Azerbaijan and found Snake Mountain. Now, they join forces to travel the remaining Caucasian country together…

Skeletor is overjoyed to be on the road again, especially in a country with such excellent food as Georgia!

Skeletor’s sightseeing begins with a trip to Bagrati Cathedral… but it looks like there’s someone here to keep an eye on him…

Skeletor has found a hollow tree – an ideal new base of operations – in Kutaisi Botanic Gardens.

Skeletor has come to Ancient Colchis and found the Golden Fleece! Wasn’t difficult. Even He-Man could have done this.

Just when he thought the day’s sightseeing was over, Skeletor has found a cable car to ride! He’s very excited.

At the top of the cable car, Skeletor found a fake Eiffel Tower, which he loved – but he still can’t shake the feeling that someone’s watching him…

“Gelati monastery? That kind of sounds like gelato, amirite? Can I have an ice cream?” asks Skeletor, rudely.

Skeletor is quite pleased with his new cave hideout in Sataplia.

Skeletor has just settled down to enjoy a nice dish of chizhibizhi – but who’s this interloper at the other end of the table?

Another day, another cave system hideout.

Skeletor’s loving the view (except for one specific aspect of it) at Okatse Canyon.

Nice day out at the Dadiani Palace for Skeletor.

Skeletor has awarded himself a pancake for lunch.

Skeletor is practicing his smug pose, which he will adopt after he pushes He-Man off this bridge (which is the longest pedestrian bridge in Europe, for those who are interested).

Skeletor has quite a track record in trying to destroy dams – luckily He-Man’s on hand to stop him this time!

“That’s a fast-flowing river,” mused Skeletor. “It would be a shame if anyone were to fall in.”

Lovely glass of wine and a wooden fire at the end of a busy day for Skeletor.

Out for a quick walk in the mountains above Mestia.

Skeletor out for an evening walk in the rain, coming across a Svan tower.

And today in scenes cut from the cartoon…

In Ushguli village, Skeletor is enthralled with this stunning vista of Svan towers.

Just two mortal enemies sharing a glass of chacha brandy.

Skeletor’s got a long drive today, so he’s just saying goodbye to the mountains of Svaneti with a short walk first.

There’s Skeletor, trying the old ‘make it look like I’m pushing over the lighthouse’ trick.

He-Man and Skeletor like Batumi’s nuts architecture, but they are concerned they won’t get much sleep, party town that this is!

He-Man and Skeletor there, trying to imitate the Ali & Nino sculpture.

Skeletor’s found himself a nice castle to play in. It does begin with ‘G’, but sadly it’s Gonio, not Grayskull.

He-Man is well pleased with his new castle. But Skeletor isn’t far away….

Skeletor says, “That’s fine, He-Man. You can have that manky old castle. I’m having this entire palace complex! #Winning.”

Skeletor is loving his day trip to Vardzia cave monastery.

Khertvisi – yet another castle for the lads to squabble over.

A nice sit down for the lads in Borjomi Central Park.

I’ve treated the guys to khinkali for lunch.

Skeletor sits high above Borjomi town.

He-Man has been uncharacteristically violent with Skeletor this morning at Timotesubani Monastery.

He-Man and Skeletor showing off a Soviet sculpture in Gori.

Here are He-Man and Skeletor, doing some kind of weird interpretative dance in front of the birthplace of Stalin.

Keeping these guys supplied with khachapuri is getting expensive.

The guys posing for next year’s calendar above Mtskheta, Georgia’s holiest city.

Skeletor there, trying to look all dark and foreboding at Ananuri Fortress.

Skeletor was in a bit of a hurry but he enjoyed his quick stop at the Russian-Georgian Friendship Monument.

Skeletor giving He-Man a kick as He-Man sits down to rest on the trek up to the Gergeti Trinity Church, Stepantsminda.

He-Man and Skeletor return to the Russian-Georgian Friendship Monument, as they felt they were a little hurried last time.

Skeletor likes Alaverdi Cathedral so much, he says he’ll even give up being evil if he can live there.

When in wine country….

Still in Georgia’s wine region, so obviously He-Man and Skeletor have … come to a Mexican restaurant and got a margarita?

Skeletor is loving his trip to Sighnaghi, but thinks it feels more like Italy than Georgia…

Here’s He-Man and Skeletor chilling out together on a qvevri – a large pot which is buried in the ground to allow wine to ferment and age. They are hoping to sample the contents later.

He-Man and Skeletor posing in front of the ‘Always’ Bridge in Tbilisi. Not sure why He-Man’s standing like that.

Skeletor’s coped with a fair few bizarre situations in his time, but he has no idea how to act in a decadent early 20th century style coffee house.

Are He-Man and Skeletor flying? No, it’s just the immensely disconcerting glass floor in the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts.

He-Man and Skeletor have been told that as they’re not puppets, they will not be allowed to perform at Tbilisi’s puppet theatre.

Skeletor enjoying the view from the Narikala Fortress, but mindful of the big drop behind him.

Last evening in Georgia – He-Man and Skeletor think they’re going to miss the wine!

In Yerevan, Armenia, Skeletor suspects that the artwork at this amusement park may have ripped him off.

“Would you like to share my ice-cream and lemonade, He-Man?”
“Oh yes please Skeletor, thank you.”
“Calm your tits, He-Man, I only asked if you’d like to. Didn’t say you could.”

It’s likely that at this point He-Man’s frustration with his travelling companion boiled over; there are certainly no more pictures.

Thanks for putting up with this nonsense…

Episode 80 – The Perils of Peekablue

In which Loo-Kee gets on about drugs again.

Good God, this episode starts with a slow pan through the Fright Zone that lasts so long I thought the entire episode was going to comprise a weird, experimental mood piece. Once the creepy music stops playing and something actually happens, after what seems like 5 minutes, we are treated to a scene in which a prisoner called Peck escapes from the dungeons, and makes a bid for freedom.

Little does this unfortunate dude know that Hordak has let him escape on purpose, simply so that he can test his new weapon, a device called the Grabber. The Grabber is good for one thing, and that’s grabbing people who are running about on the ground. Peck is grabbed, and returned to the dungeons, while Hordak declares the test a success.

Peck: “I feel like I should somehow have seen this coming.”

Shadow Weaver points out that the Grabber is only any use if the Horde can see what it is trying to grab, and notes that if Hordak wants to grab anyone in Whispering Wood, he won’t be able to because Horde magic cannot penetrate the trees. All of this rubbish is an unnecessarily long preamble to Hordak’s decision to capture Peekablue, a rebel whose ability is to see anywhere.

When the Horde Troopers show up to kidnap Peekablue, She-Ra is on the scene, and if there’s one thing She-Ra loves, it’s beating the merry hell out of Horde Troopers. On this occasion, however, the merry hell beating is counter-productive: while She-Ra is so occupied, some other Horde Troopers successfully make off with Peekablue. Once Peekablue is at the Fright Zone, Shadow Weaver casts a spell on her, enslaving her into complete obedience to the Horde.

Peekablue: “Hordak, you need a new toaster.”

With Peekablue guiding the Grabbers, Hordak starts snatching up rebels left right and centre. The first one he captures is the ever useful Glimmer, followed by the even less useful Bow, both of whom are conveyed to the Fright Zone for a scene of pointless gloating, after which they are despatched to the dungeon. Shortly thereafter, Adora allows herself to be captured by the Grabber, and joins her friends in the finest cell the Fright Zone has to offer.

 I’m not really sure what Adora was hoping to achieve by deliberately getting herself locked up, but luckily the rebels have been placed in a cell with Peck. You remember Peck, that irrelevant dude from the start of the episode? Anyway, it turns out that Peck has spent the last six years of his imprisonment digging a tunnel, but gave up when it only led deeper into the dungeons. Well, Peck, perhaps you should have angled your tunnel upwards rather than down. That’s the thing about digging tunnels that maybe Peck doesn’t know: you can actually choose what direction you dig them.

Peck: “Yes yes, this is definitely an escape tunnel and definitely not my sex dungeon.”

Well, there’s no need to dwell on Peck any longer. Now he’s revealed the existence of his tunnel, he can go back to being irrelevant. Adora nips down the tunnel and turns into She-Ra, after which she comes back to rescue Bow, Glimmer and Peck. In the course of this rescue, Glimmer reveals that she has the power to turn herself and other people invisible, which is a new one. Glimmer’s powers are so weirdly variable. Remember when she was randomly able to fly that one time?

She-Ra then goes off to rescue Peekablue, and helpfully manages to break the mind control spell as well. The whole crowd of rebels then return happily to Whispering Wood, where they discover that Peck is the father of another rebel called Keeber, though I should add there is no particular reason why the viewer should give a monkey’s about this revelation. Then there’s a very bad joke, and a lot of hearty laughter, in which I did not partake.

Peekablue: “Yeah, it’s great to be here with you lot and your tedious ‘jokes’.”

In today’s adventure…

Loo-Kee eluded me today, so I expect he’s feeling pretty pleased with himself. He’s off on one about drugs again, claiming that Shadow Weaver’s mind control spell is pretty much the same thing as drugs, and so presumably if we take drugs we might find ourselves working for the Horde. I wonder what happened to Loo-Kee in the past with drugs, since he seems very keen to involve them in pretty much any conversation, no matter how tangential they are to the subject in hand.

Character checklist

Today we are lucky enough to see Adora, She-Ra, Glimmer, Peekablue, Flutterina, Peck, Keeber, Loo-Kee, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, and some Horde Troopers. Surprisingly, there’s cameo appearances for Prince Adam, Cringer and Orko. And let’s not forget Bow, who manages to look very special indeed at the end of the episode.

Bow: “There’s a fair chance I’ve been on some of those drugs Loo-Kee was wittering about.”

Excuse given for Adora’s disappearance

“Adora’s safe, don’t worry,” says She-Ra, when she comes to rescue Bow, Glimmer and Peck. I think it would have been better if She-Ra had said, “Adora went back to the Whispering Woods, and left you clowns to rot in here. She hates your stupid faces.”

Insults

There’s a fair few imaginative insults this week, though Hordak sets a low starting bar by referring to Peck as a “pitiful fool” and then just a “fool”. He’s similarly dull with Shadow Weaver, who also gets a “fool”, but he then outdoes himself by calling Glimmer a “sparklehead”.

Hordak: “Just popping on Twitter to tell She-Ra she’s a fool.”

The rebels are clearly in a bad mood too; Bow addresses the Grabber as a “tin trespasser”, and then goes nuts at Hordak, calling him a “beast”, an “evil vicious monster” and “bat-ears”. Glimmer gets in on the act with “cruel creature” and “monster”, while Peekablue rounds up with “cruel, evil, heartless tyrant”. Hordak seems pretty pleased with this last description, so it’s up to you whether you’d choose to define it as an insult or not.

Does it have the Power?

No, but neither is it stupefyingly bad. It’s just a pretty average day on Etheria, really, with nothing to elevate it to the heavens or bring it crashing down into the depths. Watch it, don’t watch it, I don’t care.

Episode 79 – Romeo and Glimmer

In which the writers don’t have the balls to stick to the ending of the story they’re adapting.

The rebels have gathered at Castle Bright Moon, where they receive intelligence suggesting that Hordak is planning an attack shortly. When huge Horde armies arrive and surround the castle, Bright Moon’s guards manage to capture a Horde soldier, called Corporal Romeo, who refuses to give up any further information on the upcoming attack. Noting that Romeo’s arm is hurt, Glimmer offers to take him to the medical room to cure it.

Romeo: “Oh no. Being captured is bad enough. Having to interact with Adora is terrible.”

At the medical room, Glimmer spends a fair bit of time staring dopily into Romeo’s face, then starts shrieking at him for his allegiance to the Horde. Romeo defends himself, apparently sincerely believing that the Horde is a force for good. You know that scene in the new She-Ra series where Bow shouts at Adora about the Horde being called THE EVIL HORDE? Romeo could benefit from that conversation. Anyway, he tries to make friends with Glimmer, but she won’t have it and stomps off to help defend the castle.

In a massive tank outside the castle, Hordak and Entrapta fire a new weapon at the protective forcefield, which rather surprisingly brings the forcefield crashing down. Of course, the first thing they find on the other side is She-Ra, poncing about with an insufferable air of self-importance. With very little effort, she picks up the tank and hurls it back to the Fright Zone.

She-Ra: “Sword to fireworks.”

We then cut back to Romeo, pacing about in the medical room. He is talking to himself, muttering, “Hordak always told us the rebels were animals.” There’s then a touch of regret in his voice as he concludes, “But Glimmer isn’t like an animal at all.” It’s clear that he has fallen for Glimmer, but decides that his duty is to escape and return to Hordak. In the course of his escape, he overhears Queen Angela saying that until Bright Moon’s forcefield is repaired, the castle will remain vulnerable, and he determines to bring this info back to the Horde.

Discovering that Romeo has done a runner, Glimmer develops a near-obsession with recapturing him. She heads off with Kowl in tow, finding Romeo just before he leaves rebel territory, and they have another impassioned debate about whether the Horde are good or evil. This ends when Romeo leaps on Glimmer, appears to grope her, and then whisks her off to meet Hordak.

Glimmer: “Hey! Personal space!”

Romeo informs Hordak of the vulnerability of the force shield, but then foolishly starts answering back when Hordak orders Glimmer to be locked up. The end result of the scene is that both Glimmer and Romeo end up being booked in for an all-expenses-paid stay in a five star dungeon. While there, they indulge in yet another discussion, after which Romeo agrees to join the Rebellion, though possibly only to shut Glimmer up.

Kowl brings word back to Bright Moon of Glimmer’s capture, and She-Ra goes barrelling along to rescue her. She releases Glimmer and Romeo from their cell, and then finds time to smash up a squadron of Horde Troopers and free a whole load more prisoners. Once they all return to Bright Moon, Glimmer makes eyes at Romeo and starts trying to act seductive, which is fairly uncomfortable viewing, if I’m honest.

Glimmer: “I’ve spent some time trying to think of a sexual innuendo involving the word ‘Horde’, but I can’t.”

In today’s adventure…

I was so engrossed in this week’s fascinating instalment that I entirely forgot to look for Loo-Kee, though I wasn’t altogether surprised when he revealed he was in a tree. He witters on about friendship and how it’s really valuable and all that. I’m getting heartily sick of Loo-Kee and his gibberish.

Character checklist

This majestic entry features Adora, She-Ra, Glimmer, Bow, Kowl, Queen Angela, Romeo, Loo-Kee, Hordak, Entrapta, Imp, and a super selection of Horde Troopers.

Entrapta: “Em, Hordak, I’m sure you did this to Octavia too at one point. It’s a little bit inappropriate.”

Insults

Entrapta calls She-Ra a “muscle maiden” and says something that sounds very much like “little fink” to Imp, but I don’t know what that means. Otherwise, we only have Kowl slightly oddly calling a Horde Trooper a “turkey”.

Oh No, Bow!

Adora has to remind Bow at the start that the rebels don’t torture people for information, which comes as something of a disappointment to Bow, judging by his face. He’s itching to beat the living daylights out of Romeo.

Does it have the Power?

I’m sure the writers thought they were paying respectful tribute to Shakespeare by attempting to rework his play into this episode, but all they did was craft a really boring story. The only good thing about it was that it gave me momentary hope that they’d stick to the original and make Glimmer stab herself to death at the end. Perhaps inevitably, this doesn’t happen, and I now realise I was foolish to expect it. With that hope dashed, though, there’s no reason whatsoever to watch this.

Episode 78 – When Whispering Woods Last Bloomed

In which we meet two new recruits to Team She-Ra.

Adora and Madame Razz are out in the forest, feeding a variety of interestingly deformed animals, but have to put a stop to this when they hear the unmistakeable sound of Catra capturing Bow and a load of other rebels. That means it’s leotards off and tiaras and red capes on for Adora, who in her She-Ra guise puts Catra and the Horde to flight pretty speedily. The whole thing is watched from a vantage point by two ladies, called Spinnerella and Netossa, who decide the most appropriate follow-up to all the excitement is to go to the pub.

Netossa: “Lovely little boozer, eh, Spinnerella?”

They are met there by Shadow Weaver, who has heard of Spinnerella’s amazing power. In case you’re having difficulty with this one, I can here reveal that Spinnerella’s power is to spin round really fast, creating a hurricane. Shadow Weaver hopes to persuade Spinnerella to use this power to knock down the trees of Whispering Wood, and to this end she captures Netossa in a magical forcefield, then tells Spinnerella that Netossa has been kidnapped by the rebels.

Spinnerella offers to use her powers to shift the trees out of the way, so that Hordak can send in his Troopers to rescue Netossa. I think it’s fair to say that Spinnerella is an idiot. I reckon I could have seen through this plot, even if I hadn’t had the benefit of watching 77 previous episodes of Hordak’s silly schemes. Still, we mustn’t dwell on that. Let’s move on to the good bit.

The good bit is where Spinnerella hitches a lift in a Horde truck down to the trees of Whispering Wood. She then starts spinning, and the hare-brained plan actually works; for the first time I can remember, the Horde manage to enter Whispering Wood. Unfortunately, it all begins unravelling a few seconds later, when Spinnerella addresses Adora and Bow to demand Netossa’s release. Naturally, Adora and Bow don’t have a clue what she’s talking about, and say as much.

Spinnerella: “I’ll huff and puff and I’ll blow your tower down. Okay, I’ll spin and blow it down, but nothing sensible rhymes with spin.”

Spinnerella doesn’t believe them, so carries on spinning. Adora trots off to become She-Ra, then contacts Light Hope to find out who and where Netossa is. Light Hope supplies this information in a pretty sane manner – comparative to his last appearance, Out of the Cocoon, in which he was as loony as loony can be.

Armed with Light Hope’s information, She-Ra beetles off to the Fright Zone and rescues Netossa. After the situation is explained to her, Netossa comes with She-Ra and tells Spinnerella that she’s a complete moron, so Spinnerella obligingly changes sides and spins Hordak out of the forest. With Hordak gone, She-Ra tells Spinnerella that she’s damaged all the trees, and asks her to spin in the opposite direction to put them back to rights. Yes, She-Ra. I’m sure that’ll work. Oh. It does. But you’ve got to admit, in any world governed by sanity, it wouldn’t work.

Netossa: “Well, I hope you feel ashamed of yourself, you idiot.”

In today’s adventure…

Loo-Kee is in a tree in Whispering Wood, but sadly not one of the ones that got blown down. He tells us that we really should enjoy trees, as well as protecting them. If only Bolsonaro were watching.

Character checklist

Well, there are of course the newbies, Spinnerella and Netossa, and a decent selection of the regulars: Adora, Spirit, She-Ra, Swift Wind, Bow, Madame Razz, Broom, Kowl, Light Hope, Loo-Kee, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Catra, Grizzlor, Mantenna, Imp, and all those Horde Troopers, obviously.

Adora: “Feeding time at the zoo. You too, Madame Razz.”

Excuse given for Adora’s disappearance

“I’ll go for help,” Adora offers, generously. Once she’s gone, She-Ra miraculously shows up! Who’d have thought it?

Insults

Hordak addresses Catra, Mantenna and Grizzlor as “fools”, after which Catra and Imp trade barbs: Catra calls Imp a “little creep”, and Imp retaliates with “little feline failure”, which is a rather satisfying turn of phrase which I might use while addressing my cat. Elsewhere, the only contribution Netossa makes to the episode is standing in her jail cell shouting “big chunks of scrap metal”, “walking junk piles” and “walking vacuum cleaners” at the Horde Troopers.

Oh No, Bow!

Adora tells Bow to “do your best” while she goes to get help. When she returns after having turned into She-Ra, gone to the Fright Zone, rescued Netossa and come back again, Bow has achieved absolutely nothing. He hasn’t even moved. If this is his best effort, I dread to think what his worst is.

Adora: “Bow, did you leave your hairdryer on again?”

Does it have the Power?

It’s a decent enough introduction to Spinnerella and Netossa, though the emphasis is very much on the former; we learn that she’s capable of generating a whirlwind and is incredibly gullible. I’m not really sure how much use Spinnerella will be: I’m pretty sure that She-Ra is more than capable of spinning and generating a whirlwind by herself. I can’t think of a specific episode to prove it, but She-Ra can do everything else, so the whirlwind trick seems likely.

Anyway, all we learn about Netossa is that she’s got a net (hence her name, presumably) and she’s good at getting captured. Admittedly, that’s pretty much all she needs to be one of She-Ra’s sidekicks, but since there’s plenty of other clowns who fulfil this role, I don’t expect we’ll be seeing Netossa again. I’m going to be honest here: I don’t actually care if we see Netossa or Spinnerella again or not, so either way is a win for me.

The story is not very exciting, really. For one thing, Hordak tricking people into helping him is not a new idea, and for another, it’s not long since we had an episode about Shadow Weaver using the wind to defeat the rebels, and while this episode is much better than Above It All, it’s still not good by any objective standards. Unless you really want to know where Spinnerella and Netarsa came from, I’d conclude there’s no need to watch this episode.

As noted last review, I haven’t got loads of time at the moment; we’re still on a very much as-and-when basis. I’m hoping to have another review up next week, but no promises.