The Beginning Part 2

Adam returns to find the palace attacked and races to the Evergreen Forest, where Randor and the Defenders are fighting Keldor's forces. In a duel, Keldor takes the name Skeletor, reveals his ruined face, blames Randor for it and captures the king. Adam slips away, leaving Teela and the others to believe he has deserted them, and goes back to Castle Grayskull. There the Sorceress leads him down to the Crystal Orb of the Elders, and he raises the sword and becomes He-Man, with Orko sworn to keep the secret. As Evil-Lyn rains magmatites on the Masters and Skeletor interrogates Randor, Teela is left trapped.

Prince Adam: "All I see is that we got sucker punched by some lowlives."

Skeletor: "Revenge is like Jafari stew. It tastes best when served cold."

King Randor: "All you will taste is the bitterness of defeat, Keldor."

Skeletor: "And the name is Skeletor."

The Sorceress: "It must remain a secret that you and Prince Adam are one and the same."

King Randor: "But if I did, I would reveal nothing."

delete; open on 'Most origin stories wait a season or two before they send the bill, but...' Most origin stories wait a season or two before they send the bill, but The Beginning Part 2 hands it to Adam before he has even picked up the sword.

The episode opens in the wreckage of the palace, with Queen Marlena telling her son that Keldor's forces have attacked and that Randor, Teela and the Defenders are trying to drive them back. Riding out to the Evergreen Forest with Man-At-Arms, he calls the raid a sucker punch by some lowlives and insists his father will beat any threat to Eternia. "We shall see," says Man-At-Arms, and the forest battle that follows answers him.

This is the half of the opener where the transformation costs Adam his good name before it gives him anything. Once Randor falls, Adam slips away from the battlefield, and the episode makes sure everyone notices. A voice on the battlefield says he is turning tail, a villain sneers about "a captured king and a coward for a prince," and Teela, pinned down and losing, cannot believe Adam deserted them. The audience knows where he is going; his friends do not, and the script lets that hurt.

The writing is at its sharpest in the duel between Randor and his old enemy. Keldor announces himself as Skeletor, lets Randor see what the prologue of Part 1 did to his face, then blames the man who did it: "You did this." Randor will not take it, answering that Keldor brought it on himself, and the exchange gives the series a villain with a grievance as well as an appetite. The name he announces, "And the name is Skeletor," lands on the skull we spent all of Part 1 watching, and he chooses it in front of the man he holds responsible. Brian Dobson plays the reveal with a quiet relish ("Not a pretty sight, is it?") that is far more unsettling than a cackle would have been. It is the standout performance of the opener so far.

The transformation itself is staged as a descent. The Sorceress leads Adam through the ruined arena inside Castle Grayskull, the floor splits open, and blue crystal spires burst up around the Crystal Orb that holds the power of the Elders. The sword is so heavy that Adam can only grunt "Heavy," and the Sorceress promises it will be "much lighter in the hands of He-Man." Then the blue lightning, the oath, and a long held pause before "I have the Power!" The animation earns that pause; after so much red rock and smoke, the cavern glows like the inside of a gem.

The rest of the episode is a battle, and the battle is where it sags. Evil-Lyn's rhyming spell brings down a shower of magmatites, the Masters split into flanking parties, Skeletor interrogates the captured king with Beast Man and Panthor for company, and none of it involves the new hero. He-Man rides off shouting "For Eternia!" and is nowhere in the fight before the cliffhanger leaves Teela trapped. Long passages of the forest fight carry nothing but grunts and sparks, with several of the Evil Warriors identifiable only by their silhouettes. The big fight is being saved for Part 3, a sound plan for a three-parter, but it leaves this episode with very little for the transformed man to do.

What survives the sag is Randor. Bound, outnumbered and told to give up the Elders, he answers that he does not know, and that if he did he would reveal nothing. Skeletor's answer is to introduce Panthor. Michael Donovan plays Randor as the same soldier who once told the Elders he was no king.

As a middle chapter, The Beginning Part 2 delivers its two big reveals, Skeletor's face and He-Man's sword, and spends the rest of its time setting up a fight it will not show. The best thing in it is the price tag. A prince who looks like a coward to his own friends is a far more interesting hero than one who wins on his first outing, and the next episode has a lot to make good on.

1. Continuity: Skeletor blames Randor for his face here, and the wound does come from their fight in Part 1, but the He-Man wiki records that the skull itself was Hordak's doing, shown in the second-season episode The Price of Deceit.
2. Continuity: Adam's disappearance from the battle follows him into The Courage of Adam, where Teela tells him, "Just admit it. You got scared."
3. Fan observation: The He-Man wiki notes that Cringer and Orko followed Adam into Castle Grayskull unseen, which is how both end up witnessing the first transformation and why the Sorceress swears Orko to secrecy along with He-Man.
4. Production: For the relaunch Battle Cat was redesigned with bulkier shoulders and sabre-like fangs, making him more distinct from Cringer, according to the He-Man wiki.
5. Voice cast: Scott McNeil voices Ram-Man, Clawful and Beast Man in this episode ... and Paul Dobson plays Tri-Klops and Trap Jaw here.
6. Voice cast: Brian Dobson, the voice of Keldor and Skeletor, is one of three voice-acting brothers; another, Paul Dobson, plays Tri-Klops, Trap Jaw and Man-E-Faces here.
7. Production: The Doomseekers, Tri-Klops's floating surveillance drones, are introduced across The Beginning and become a fixture of the series, according to the He-Man wiki's appearance list.
8. Music: The series score was composed by Joseph LoDuca, and the subtitles mark a sung "He-Man" cue as the new hero rides out to battle.