A Talent for Trouble

While spring cleaning Castle Grayskull for the Sorceress, Orko sneezes, crashes, and is swept through a magic gate onto Etheria. There he meets Madame Razz and her Broom, and Mantenna and a squad of troopers capture Orko and Madame Razz while Broom escapes. Adora, seeing Broom without Madame, becomes She-Ra, learns what happened and tells the Sorceress, who says she will send He-Man; he meets her in the usual spot. Hordak and Shadow Weaver cannot work out what Orko is, and Hordak's mind sweeper overloads and blows up while Orko enjoys it, so Hordak sends him to Horde World by rocket. He-Man and She-Ra fight through Catra's Force Squad, free Madame Razz and reach the spaceport, where He-Man rides the rocket and turns it back while She-Ra deals with Hordak and Shadow Weaver. He-Man frees Orko from his glass tube after a crash, She-Ra wheels a hay transport to his rescue, and Orko, introduced to She-Ra, is delighted to get a kiss.

Loo-Kee: "Hi, it's me again, Loo-Kee. Did you see where I was hiding today? If not, take another look. See me now? Here I am. In today's adventure, when the Sorceress needed help, Orko was right there to lend a helping hand. When you come to think of it, lending a helping hand is another way of saying, "I'm your friend." Well, see you next time!"

Orko: "Hey, that was fun. Can we do it again?"

Shadow Weaver: "Let them play with him for a while. If they fail, we are not disgraced."

Madame Razz: "Bazzle, boozle, bizzle, bo! To the spaceport, off you go!"

Orko: "Man-At-Arms always said no one could figure me out. I guess he was right."

What do you do when the enemy's best equipment cannot decide what your friend is? A Talent for Trouble hangs its whole second act on that question, and its answer is a joke that works because nobody in the Fright Zone gets it. The story gets Orko to Etheria with a sneeze: he is spring cleaning Castle Grayskull for the Sorceress, who warns him to be careful around the magic doors, and a cloud of dust, a crash and a scream later he is in a meadow beside Madame Razz and her Broom, telling them he is a wizard. Mantenna and his troopers take Orko and Madame Razz, Broom escapes, and Adora, seeing Broom without Madame, becomes She-Ra and reports to the Sorceress, who says "He-Man always said he had a talent for trouble."

Hordak's first look at his prisoner is the first scene that carries the idea. He calls Orko a creature and gets "Who are you calling a creature, bone-brain?" in return, and Orko then concedes that Hordak does not scare him, much. Shadow Weaver then says she has tried every spell and that something about Orko defeats her magic, and Orko offers, cheerfully, that Man-At-Arms always said no one could figure him out. Here is what the episode is about: Orko's one real power here is that the Horde cannot make sense of him, and the story is at its best when it leaves it at that.

The mind sweeper is the standout. Orko sits in a chair under a helmet of glowing blue bulbs, remarking that it is the wrong size and the wrong color, while the machine reports phase by phase: brain function undefinable, thought processes "weird, very weird," and then, when Hordak orders phase ten at full power, a rising chorus of danger warnings before the thing blows. Orko, unharmed, asks whether they can do it again, and the wreckage goes on chanting "Hordak is a meanie" until it goes up a second time. It is a gag about science meeting a subject it has no category for, played at the right speed.

The Horde's response is the other good joke. Shadow Weaver proposes sending Orko to Horde World, where if they fail the Horde is not disgraced and if they succeed it takes the credit for sending him, and Hordak calls the plan brilliant. A regime that cannot measure a small wizard decides to ship the problem to Horde World.

The rescue is brisk and has its pleasures, among them He-Man and She-Ra riding Swift Wind together, Leech and Grizzlor left with each other, and Madame Razz getting her travel spell right on the first try. The weakness is that the title character stops being active once the plot begins to move. Orko is in a glass tube while the troopers leave in an escape pod and say "Have a happy landing," and he does nothing to save himself until He-Man smashes the glass. Loo-Kee's closing moral praises Orko for being right there to lend the Sorceress a hand, which points back to the cleaning scene at the very start; the rest of the episode is other people helping him.

A Talent for Trouble is a crossover that knows what it has, a He-Man and She-Ra reunion with Orko as the reason, and it ends the right way for him: he stammers that she is gorgeous, gets a kiss, and falls apart with joy.

1. Continuity: Someone in the Horde chamber says Horde Prime would delight in a subject like Orko for his experiments, and Horde Prime appears in person, with Hordak answering to him, in Horde Prime Takes a Holiday.
2. Continuity: Catra greets She-Ra and "that bothersome He-Man again"; He-Man is Hordak's captive in Beast Island.
3. Continuity: She-Ra reaches the Sorceress by calling out from the field and says she will wait for He-Man "in the usual spot", which suggests the crossing from Grayskull is routine.
4. Continuity: Orko says he will never see Eternia or his friends again, and cites Man-At-Arms as the one who said no one could figure him out.