Above It All

A storyteller in a red cape tells a group of children that when you have a big problem you talk it over with somebody. Near the Whispering Woods, Adora, Bow and Glimmer spot Vultak and Horde tracks, and Madame Razz crash-lands. Hordak and Shadow Weaver open the Cave of Winds, and the winds sweep through the village while Horde troopers follow. Adora becomes She-Ra and helps the villagers, then flies Swift Wind toward Bright Moon to fetch Queen Angella's magic. Shadow Weaver's winds batter her, and vines from a floating sky land drag her down. Back in the village, Glimmer and Madame Razz combine magic to hold a wall. The sky people, whose land is dying, explain that they only wanted Swift Wind to carry their children, and She-Ra finds she can help them. The children reach another sky land, and She-Ra asks if she can have the old one, then brings it toward the Cave of Winds as a present for Shadow Weaver and lassoes her. Loo-Kee closes by showing two different flowers and saying people who look different are beautiful too.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's me again, Loo-Kee. Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, try again. Can you see me? Here I am! Take a look at these two flowers. You see that they look different, but they're both beautiful. People are like that too. If you meet someone who looks different from you, remember that person is beautiful too. Just like you. See you soon. Bye now!"

Madame Razz: "Together, we'll have more power."

Kowl: "I hope you remember that I did warn you against using those logs."

She-Ra: "Some of them are my friends."

Shadow Weaver: "You may have won this time, She-Ra, but as Adora can tell you, nothing defeats the Horde!"

She-Ra: "Funny. If you stop fighting and ask for help, you can usually find someone who will help you."

Heroes are written to solve the problem, and the hardest thing for a hero to do is ask for help. This episode is built on that. A man in a red cape tells a group of children about the night his nose itched in the dark, and partway through the tale he asks them, "Now, who knows what to do when you have a big problem?" A child answers, "You talk it over with somebody." The moral is stated before the adventure starts, but the rest of the half hour has to earn it.

It mostly does, and the structure is neat: three sets of people each fail alone and then succeed together. Glimmer says "I haven't enough power" to weave a wall against the wind, so Madame Razz joins her: "Together, we'll have more power." She-Ra cannot cross the sky alone, and the villagers cannot hold out without her. The sky people cannot save their children without Swift Wind. The tone is loose and funny at the edges, as when Vultak chases Madame Razz across the sky and she casts "Make my enemy fall in a pie". The spell comes out wrong, and someone shouts "Sky! That should be sky, not pie!"

The characters get small, specific jobs. Kowl is the voice of caution, and the storyteller, who is sure of himself, ignores him. Kowl asks, "Are you sure this is wise? We would be much safer using the wood to block the doors." The reply is a plan with logs, and the logs end up on top of the storyteller, who is pinned flat while Kowl flutters over him. Kowl gets the satisfaction of "I hope you remember that I did warn you against using those logs." The storyteller promises, "By my grandfather's beard, I'll listen to you next time. If there is a next time." It is a warm bit of comedy, and it echoes the opening, because he did not talk it over with the one friend who was ready to listen.

The standout scene is She-Ra's capture in the sky land. She is held by vines, she is desperate to reach Bright Moon, and the sky people cannot grasp why. Then she cries. One of the sky people says, "Tears? You are crying. Is it possible that you are a being like us, and can feel sorrow and love?" They had taken her for "just a fighting creature", like the ones down below, and she answers that some of those people are "my friends". Then the explanation comes out: their land is dying, the glide trees that hold it up are failing, and the vines were only meant to keep Swift Wind so he could carry their children. "We never meant to cause sorrow to you or to harm your friends." It is the one scene where a misjudgement, not the Horde, is the villain, and the script handles it with a light hand.

The weakness is how long it takes to get there. She-Ra is caught by vines, frees herself, flies on, and is caught again. "Can't you understand me?" sums up the problem, but a moment of conversation would have ended it, and that is rather the point of the opening. The Horde side is thin too, since Hordak appears as a face in an orb, Shadow Weaver supplies the weather, and the troopers lie about beside a tank. The ending is also convenient. She-Ra asks "can I have it?" about the old sky land, and the gift happens to fit her problem.

Even so, the episode works as a small fable. It sends Loo-Kee's two flowers after a story in which strangers misjudge each other, and the sky land is a better set than the Horde is a threat. The story knows which one it cares about. She-Ra puts it best: "If you stop fighting and ask for help, you can usually find someone who will help you."

1. Continuity: Shadow Weaver tells She-Ra "as Adora can tell you, nothing defeats the Horde!", while the opening narration names only Light Hope, Madam Razz and Kowl as sharing the secret.
2. Continuity: The storyteller addresses a child called Corry, and the frame story about an itching nose leads into the Whispering Woods adventure; Glimmer and Adora spot Vultak near Whispering Woods before Madame Razz arrives.
3. Continuity: Queen Angella is named as the one whose magic could match the Cave of Winds, which is why She-Ra flies for Bright Moon.
4. Production: Written by Barbara Hambly and directed by Lou Kachivas; first aired 1986-11-08.
5. Note: Loo-Kee's closing talk is about two flowers that look different and are both beautiful, a thought that echoes the sky people's first view of the people below.