Bow's Magical Gift

In a forest on Etheria, Shadow Weaver ambushes Glimmer with a wizard's wand, but Bow frees her with a lasso arrow and ends up holding the wand himself. Horde Prime, on Etheria to refill his supplies and collect workers, orders Hordak to take the whole village of Glenmar to Horde World. Bow, ignoring warnings about anything of Shadow Weaver's, shows off with the wand, lifting twiggets and a boulder and frightening his friends, then sets off to stop a Horde raid on the village grain and wrecks a transporter that She-Ra has to stop. Horde Prime has the Glenmar plan leaked, because the wand has made Bow an over-confident show-off who will walk into a trap. Bow leaves his bow behind and heads for Glenmar, while She-Ra learns from Castaspella that the wand quickly loses its power. The wand dies in the village, but She-Ra arrives and the Horde plan falls apart. Bow vows to rebuild a ruined cottage with his own hands, and Loo-Kee closes on using power to help others.

Loo-Kee: "Hi everybody, did you see me in today's show? If you didn't, here's another chance. Here I am! In today's show, Bow was very careless about the way he used the power of the wizard's wand. He learned that power, like strength, is used best when it's used to help others. So remember that, kids, and bye now, see you next time!"

Bow: "I don't need it. I've got this."

She-Ra: "Bow, now that you have greater power, you should have greater responsibility, not less."

Bow: "I think this wand is going to make me famous."

Bow: "If you've got power, you have more responsibility, not less."

Bow: "But I'll do the job with my own two hands. And no magic."

What happens to a decent person who is handed a shortcut? Bow's Magical Gift has an answer, and it is not that he turns bad. Bow takes Shadow Weaver's wizard's wand after a skirmish in the forest, and within minutes he is using it to show off. The episode treats this as a mistake of manners first and a danger second, which is the right order.

The warning arrives at once. When Bow wonders how the thing works, a friend cautions him: "I wouldn't take a chance with anything that belonged to Shadow Weaver." He doesn't listen, and the first lesson is a gentle one. He sends frightened friends into the air, controls the twiggets and lifts a boulder, until someone calls for him to bring them down and Tallstar and Starla are sent to help. Someone puts the rule plainly: "Showing off to have fun is one thing, but showing off in a way that can hurt someone..." Bow says he didn't mean to scare them. The wand's sound is already getting weaker, and the remark is brushed off too.

The Horde plot is built around his vanity, which is neat. Horde Prime tells Hordak to make sure the rebel Bow hears about the plan to take Glenmar, because "the wizard's wand has made him an over-confident show-off." Bow will come, the Horde will catch him, and the rebels will come to rescue him. Hordak has the one sensible objection: "But you said it was a secret." The answer is "Well, now it isn't." The plan is short and a little silly, but it fits the hero's weakness well.

The scene to remember is the transporter. Bow has faced down a Horde battalion and wrecked its transporter, Then the wrecked machine heads for the village, and She-Ra stops it. Bow says he could have handled it himself. "It wasn't you I was worried about." She tells him that with greater power he should have greater responsibility, not less. His answer shows who he has become: "Of course. But don't worry so much. Look, the villagers want us to take a bow." The pun on his name is a small joke at his expense, and a sharp one. A moment later he says "I think this wand is going to make me famous," while the humming gets softer behind him.

The weakness is the plumbing. Someone among the heroes spots the best clue in the hour, that "Hordak usually keeps plans like that secret so no one can interfere", and then the idea is dropped. Nobody asks who told the village, though the audience has already seen Horde Prime order the leak. Castaspella appears for one scene to explain the wand: it is strong, it loses power quickly, it glows less brightly, and then it stops. We have already heard it fade more than once, so the explanation arrives after the clues. The wand then dies just when Bow walks into the trap, which is convenient timing even by the standards of the show.

The ending is good. Bow leaves his bow behind with "I don't need it. I've got this," and in the village a call of "Bow, catch!" brings him a weapon again. Afterwards he admits it himself: "If you've got power, you have more responsibility, not less." Then he sets about the broken cottage: "But I'll do the job with my own two hands. And no magic." Everyone joins him, and the last line before the tag is "when everybody helps each other, that's real power."

As a fable it is clear and gentle. Bow gets to be wrong without being humiliated, and his friends let him find out for himself. The plot has loose joints, but the character work holds.

1. Continuity: Shadow Weaver's wand is taken by Bow in the opening fight, and the Horde later complains that the rebel Bow "stole your wizard's wand."
2. Continuity: Horde Prime is on Etheria "to refill his supplies and pick up workers for his factory", and the target is the village of Glenmar.
3. Note: One of the heroes remarks that "Hordak usually keeps plans like that secret so no one can interfere", but nobody asks who leaked it; the audience has already seen Horde Prime order the leak.
4. Note: Castaspella explains that the wand glows less brightly and makes noises as it weakens, and then it just stops.
5. Production: Written by Philip Kassel and directed by Lou Kachivas; first aired 1987-10-10.