Daimar the Demon

Orko uses his magic to bring his new friend, Daimar, from another dimension to Eternia. Little does he know is that his new friend's presence is causing trouble on Eternia. Prince Adam tells viewers to share big problems with someone who cares, rather than feeling ashamed to ask for help.

Prince Adam: "Well, that Daimar was really quite a fellow, wasn't he? Orko had no idea just what he was getting into with his mixed-up magic spell. But he soon found out that he'd let loose something he couldn't handle. Now, we know that in real life there aren't any magic spells or demons, but there are problems. And, just like Orko, sometimes you'll find you've got one that's too big for you to handle. At times like that, remember there are a lot of people out there who really care about you. So talk to them. Telling them what's wrong is the first step toward making things right!"

John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam and Young Daimar the Demon

Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor, Man-At-Arms and Cringer

Linda Gary as Teela, Evil-lyn, The Sorceress and Queen Marlena

Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Orko, King Randor and Daimar the Demon

"I choose my own destiny, Skeletor, and it is not with the likes of you."

- Daimar

Orko starts this one bored out of his skull, alone on the Grayskull steps with nobody to play with. That loneliness is the engine for everything that follows. He flips open the Sorceress' Book of Magic, finds a page on a creature called Daimar, and recites the spell without once asking what a demon from somewhere called the Dark Dimension might actually be. J. Brynne Stephens' script treats that as a kid's mistake rather than a cosmic crime. Daimar arrives small, horned and perfectly friendly, wanting the same thing Orko wants: somebody to play with. We get a surprising amount of mileage out of two lonely characters finding each other before the plot machinery closes in on both of them.

That machinery is Skeletor's, and it runs on a line he says almost in passing: Daimar "was not born to think, only to serve his superiors." Nobody says anything uglier in the whole episode! Whatever side wins Daimar wins by telling him what he is for. Man-At-Arms frames the whole crisis as a question of balance, equations proving the Dark Dimension sits uncomfortably close to Eternia. But the show is less interested in the physics than in the tug-of-war over one creature's sense of self. Grown into the adult Daimar, a looming brown-winged thing animated with real force, he is still just reacting to whoever is nearest, the Book of Magic, Evil-Lyn's spells, Skeletor's staff, until He-Man finally asks him what he wants instead of what he is good for.

That confrontation on the rocks is the episode's best scene, and it earns it by refusing to resolve with a sword. He-Man's answer to a bound, furious demon is argument: "you can create your own destiny," repeated and reworked as Daimar strains against golden rope with Orko perched on his shoulder, pleading in the one voice Daimar actually trusts. Filmation leans on a wash of double-exposed color behind He-Man's face for the appeal, a small, cheap effect that nonetheless sells the idea that this is happening somewhere other than the physical fight. Daimar finally turns on Skeletor: "I choose my own destiny, Skeletor, and it is not with the likes of you." The episode has spent its whole runtime earning that line.

Where the episode runs thin is the middle stretch at Eternos, where the dinner-table chaos (a seat going strange, a dish warping into a caterpillar-like creature, King Randor's table turning to muck) exists mostly to tell the royal family something is wrong before cutting back to Orko and Daimar playing in the swamp. It is the standard cutaway structure for this show, home-base reaction shots standing in for urgency, and it slows a story that works best when it stays close to the two lonely characters at its center. The episode also never quite reckons with how casually Orko endangered Eternia; Prince Adam's closing message turns the whole affair into a lesson about asking for help with problems too big to handle alone. It is a fine moral, but a smaller one than the story actually told.

Hal Sutherland directs, his only episode in a season otherwise run by other hands, and the production is tidier for it: the transformation into He-Man carries real snap, and the final rescue of the weakened Sorceress ties back cleanly to Man-At-Arms' opening equations. Daimar the Demon is not quite the show reaching for its highest ambitions, but its best idea, that a creature everyone insists is just a tool can choose otherwise, gives this particular Saturday morning's lesson a little more teeth than usual.

1. Behind the scenes: Script was approved January 17, 1983 and final script revision was done September 6, 1983. This is the only episode directed by Filmation co-founder Hal Sutherland, who served as Production Director on the entire series. The Dark Dimension as seen on Man-At-Arms' monitor screen was scripted to resemble the surreal art of Steve Ditko as seen in his Doctor Strange comics published by Marvel.
2. In earlier versions of the script, Trap Jaw joined Skeletor and Evil-Lyn on their journey to Grayskull.
3. Continuity: The shot of Eternos in ruins is actually a background reused from the Ancient temple ruins as seen in Colossor Awakes. The character design of the adult Daimar would be used again as Kraal in Betrayal of Stratos. The image of the Sorceress lying on the floor in her weakened state would be reused in Song of Celice. The Dark Dimension is visited in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode Into the Dark Dimension, but at that time it appears Daimar is no longer king, as a new character, the Dark One, claims to be its master.
4. More continuity: The animation of Orko clapping his hands (with his ears missing) is used again, twice, in the episode The Search and can also be seen in Return of the Gryphon and The Shadow of Skeletor. The nighttime view of Castle Grayskull will be used again in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode The Inspector.
5. Animation errors and goofs: The Sorceress' Book of Magic has a pink book cover. But when Skeletor is reading from it at Snake Mountain and closes the book, it's cover is white. When Teela kneels next to the Sorceress, the background segment beneath her arm is given a flesh color by mistake. This is corrected in the next close-up shot. Then a few moments later, part of the Sorceress' orange wing is missing between her arm and head. Daimar is animated to have glowing eyes. But as he grabs Skeletors vehicle, the Basher, the glowing effect is missing and pupils are visible instead. When Orko claps his hands after Skeletor is defeated, his ears are missing. When the Sorceress appears in the window of Grayskull's tower near the end, her animation cel is positioned as if walking in front of the edge of the window instead of coming from behind it.
6. A summoned demon named Daimar refuses to return to its dimension. He-Man must convince Daimar that the demon's own world is worth returning to.