SHE-RA - 1985

He Ain't Heavy

He Ain't Heavy title card
S01E15

Official Synopsis

He Ain't Heavy synopsis still

The Horde, with Shadow Weaver and Grizzlor, steals the Moon Mirror from the retired wizard Catillus, and Hordak uses it to snatch Prince Adam as bait for Adora. Adora, now She-Ra, slips into the Fright Zone to free him, while Bow and Catillus follow separately and Adam becomes He-Man. When Hordak orders the Mirror activated with the moons out of line, it bridges to the Doom Dimension and threatens to swallow Etheria, so the two siblings plug it with a statue of Hordak.

Watch the Full Episode

He Ain't Heavy Official upload, Masters of the Universe channel

Morals by Spoken by Loo-Kee at the episode's close, original Filmation broadcast

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's me again, Loo-Kee. Did you find my hiding place today? If not, here's another chance. See me now? Here I am! Today, I would like to talk to you about safety. There are things around the house that can be pretty dangerous. Things like knives and tools and matches, they aren't toys. So don't play with them. Play safely. Bye now!"

Memorable Quotes

Hordak: "The monument to my humble genius is nearly complete."

Catillus: "The Moon Mirror is too dangerous for anyone to use."

Bow: "Supplies can wait, Glimmer. We're off to save Etheria!"

heman.org Episode Review

Catillus opens the episode in a nightgown, asking the intruders to go away. He is a retired wizard, and he gets one warning out about the Moon Mirror before he is cut off: "The Moon Mirror is too dangerous for anyone to use. If you make one mistake..." Shadow Weaver answers "Your talk bores me, wizard!" and Grizzlor carries the mirror off. In the Fright Zone, Hordak says "The monument to my humble genius is nearly complete," and Weaver explains that the Mirror "will not reach into the Whispering Woods and the Rebel base." Hordak has an answer ready: "it will bring us a very powerful bait...Adora's brother, Prince Adam of Eternia." Adam is seized the moment he arrives, and the rebels hear about it from a Spybat that does not explode and a message cube that does.

Adora answers the cube with "I must get Adam back," and tells Bow "My brother needs me, but the rebels need you here." Bow lasts about two minutes. He meets Catillus, announces "Supplies can wait, Glimmer. We're off to save Etheria!" and leaves with a wizard he has just met.

The episode turns on a brother and sister working as a pair. She-Ra goes in alone for Adam, and once he is out the two of them take on the Mirror together. That second half is the better one. Weaver had already said what happens when the Mirror is used with the moons out of line, and Hordak had agreed that "we must not take a chance." After the rescue he orders it activated anyway, and when Weaver says "I cannot control it!" he answers "You question me?" The Mirror bridges to the Doom Dimension and starts pulling in Horde Troopers and wreckage, and the warning Catillus began is finished for him.

The plug is the best idea in it. One voice says "There's nothing in here big enough," and another answers "I know where we can find something that'll just fit." What fits is a statue of Hordak, and the line that goes with it is "I always thought that was an ugly monument." Rope, a shouted "Your turn, brother!" and He-Man and She-Ra hold up the heavy load between them, which makes the title literal. Bow braces against a pillar, and when Catillus cries "Nothing to hold on to!" Bow supplies something, so the rescue is not only the siblings' work.

The weakness is the first two-thirds. Adam is taken early and the two do not meet again until two-thirds of the way through, so the bond the plot leans on is mostly told to us. She-Ra reaches the dungeon corridor, floors the guards, and the reunion is "Too late, Adam. Let's get out of here." Adam has one line of his own in that stretch, "Just let me get my sword," and nothing from either of them says what it is to be that person's brother. Hordak calls Adam bait, but the bait is out of the cell within two minutes of She-Ra arriving, so the plan he built the day around hardly gets to matter. The closing remark, "That was a heavy responsibility," is a pun on the title with no scene behind it.

A good plug and a thin middle. The Mirror sequence works because the characters act together and the episode lets Bow and Catillus be useful, while the hostage plot is over before it has cost anyone anything.

Notes of Interest

  1. Continuity: Hordak calls Adora a Force Captain who deserted the Horde's ranks, and in the Fright Zone she says "Lucky I remember this place so well."

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
Princess Adora
Good

Princess Adora
She-Ra
Good

She-Ra
Bow
Good

Bow
Glimmer
Good

Glimmer
Kowl
Good

Kowl
Swift Wind
Good

Swift Wind
Spirit (Adora's pre-transformation horse)
Good

Spirit (Adora's pre-transformation horse)
Prince Adam
Good

Prince Adam
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Teela
Good

Teela
Grizzlor
Evil

Grizzlor
Hordak
Evil

Hordak

Episode screenshots

A pale statue stands among stacked shelves in Catillus the wizard's cluttered workshop.
A pale statue stands among stacked shelves in Catillus the wizard's cluttered workshop.
Catillus the wizard peers nervously around a doorway in his nightgown.
A pale statue looms over the cluttered workshop while Catillus's white hair peeks in at the edge.
Horde Troopers and Grizzlor corner Catillus in his nightgown inside his workshop.
Horde Troopers and Grizzlor corner Catillus in his nightgown inside his workshop.
A magenta cloaked hand glows green as it reaches out of the darkness.
A magenta cloaked hand glows green as it reaches out of the darkness.
Shadow Weaver confronts the frightened Catillus in front of a torn red curtain.
Shadow Weaver reaches toward the Moon Mirror, which glows in a shaft of light beside a blue cloth.
Catillus stands with hands spread, looking worried, in his workshop.
Shadow Weaver stands with arms folded in front of a torn red curtain.
Grizzlor walks toward the Moon Mirror, which glows in a beam of light.
Shadow Weaver and Grizzlor stand side by side, looking on.
Catillus raises both hands in alarm as a thin arc of light curves behind him.
The spider-legged Fright Zone fortress rises over a smoky, burning landscape.
Hordak sits on his throne in the Doom Tower.
Hordak sits on his throne in the Doom Tower.
A stone statue of Hordak stands on a pedestal among blue pipes.
Hordak sits on his throne, one fist resting on the armrest.
Hordak speaks, his skull helmet turned slightly to the side.
Hordak snarls, his fanged mouth open, filling the frame.
A glowing image of Prince Adam appears beside Hordak.
Two glowing moons, one green and one blue, hang in the dark opening of a Horde chamber.
Shadow Weaver and Hordak stand together on the steps of Doom Tower.
Teela faces Prince Adam, whose blonde head fills the right edge of the frame.
Teela faces Prince Adam, whose blonde head fills the right edge of the frame.
Teela and Prince Adam stand together on a paved terrace in Eternia.
A domed structure and a tall post stand by a low wall under a purple sky.
Two small moons float beside a bulbous, blue patterned alien plant.
Prince Adam walks warily through a Fright Zone corridor of red walls and pipes.
Prince Adam walks warily through a Fright Zone corridor of red walls and pipes.
Prince Adam stands between two Horde Troopers in a Fright Zone corridor.
Prince Adam holds the Sword of Power as electric sparks crackle along its blade.
Prince Adam stares ahead, held by Horde Troopers on both sides.
Prince Adam is marched between armed Horde Troopers.
Hordak glares from the side with a blue cape over his shoulder.
Purple bushes and blue grass fill a path in the Whispering Woods.
Bow, Glimmer and Adora study a map spread on a table in the Whispering Woods.
Bow, Glimmer and Adora study a map spread on a table in the Whispering Woods.
A hand with red nails points at a village on a map near two forests.
Bow draws his bow and aims an arrow, holding the string at his cheek.
Adora and Glimmer watch something off to the side.
Adora and Glimmer watch something off to the side.
Bow crouches holding a small grey cube beside a smoking, broken Spybat.
Adora and Bow lie on the grass, Bow clutching his head after a blast.
Adora looks to the side among pink bushes.
A hand holds out a grey message cube.
Adora holds the message cube while Glimmer and Bow look on.
Adora looks down with a worried expression.
Adora handles the message cube while Glimmer and Bow watch beside her.
Adora and Glimmer stand in the distance while Bow frowns in the foreground.
Adora and Glimmer stand side by side in the forest.
Adora and Glimmer stand together on the grass.
Glimmer looks ahead, her pink hood framing her face.
Glimmer looks ahead, her pink hood framing her face.
Adora and Glimmer talk, standing among pink bushes.
Adora sits astride Spirit, the white horse standing beside her.
Adora looks out from the forest, her face turned slightly aside.
Adora rides Spirit across a grassy clearing.
Adora raises her sword among a burst of golden sparks as she transforms.
Swift Wind stands with blue wings folded among pink bushes.
Swift Wind stands with blue wings folded among pink bushes.
She-Ra rides Swift Wind through pale clouds with wings spread wide.
She-Ra rides Swift Wind through pale clouds with wings spread wide.
Bow and Glimmer stand at a small blue pedestal table in the Whispering Woods.
Catillus the wizard holds his crescent-topped staff and looks to the side.
Catillus with his staff faces Bow, who folds his arms, beside Glimmer.
Catillus gestures with an open hand toward Glimmer, her pink hood in the foreground.
Bow and Glimmer look toward Catillus, off screen.
Catillus rests one hand on his hip and holds his staff.
Bow stands beside a tan horse while Catillus leans in at the right.
Tiny figures cross a Fright Zone courtyard seen from high above.
She-Ra rests her hand on Swift Wind's neck as he stands with wings folded.
A stone statue of Hordak sits on a pedestal among blue pipes.
She-Ra swings in over the shoulder of a Horde Trooper holding a rifle.
A Horde Trooper turns on a walkway above a red cavern.
Prince Adam reaches an arm out through the barred window of his cell.
Horde Troopers stand with their backs turned while Prince Adam watches from his cell window.
Prince Adam grips the bars of his cell, eyes closed.
She-Ra stands among a heap of fallen Horde Troopers with sparks flying.
Prince Adam lifts his sword from a dark scabbard.
She-Ra and Prince Adam stand together, Adam holding the Sword of Power.
A Horde Trooper stands beside a tangled dark machine in the Fright Zone.
Hordak sits on his throne, hands gripping the armrests.
Hordak raises both hands as he sits on his throne.
Hordak glares with red eyes and bared teeth, filling the frame.
Bow and Catillus crouch at the edge of a ledge in the Fright Zone.
Two Horde Troopers with rifles stand guard on a gantry among pipes.
Bow handles the tip of an arrow beside his bow.
Bow runs across a rubble-strewn floor with his bow in hand.
Bow and Catillus stand by a doorway in a blue Fright Zone wall.
Catillus looks to the side with a sly expression.
She-Ra looks to the side, her face lit in a red corridor.
Prince Adam raises the Sword of Power amid crackling energy as he transforms.
He-Man holds the glowing Sword of Power in front of him.
He-Man holds the glowing Sword of Power in front of him.
He-Man and She-Ra look at each other in a Fright Zone corridor.
Bow puts an arm around Catillus beside a Fright Zone doorway.
Catillus holds his head with both hands, looking troubled.
He-Man and She-Ra stand together, looking toward the left.
A beam of light flashes from an ornate golden device in a dark blue forest.
Hordak sits on his throne, looking to the side.
Shadow Weaver turns her hooded head, yellow eyes glowing.
The Moon Mirror spins inside a blur of swirling wind.
The Moon Mirror pulls Horde Troopers and debris into its spinning glow.
Wreckage and Horde Trooper parts tumble into the glowing Moon Mirror.
Hordak grips a pipe, with his back to the viewer, as the wind pulls at him.
Hordak is dragged sideways by a whirling spiral of wind.
Hordak is whipped along inside a curling spiral of wind.
He-Man and She-Ra brace against a wall in the roaring wind.
She-Ra braces against a wall with both arms as wind whips her hair.
He-Man and She-Ra look toward a stone statue of Hordak on a pedestal.
She-Ra reaches out as a flash of pink light blazes beside her.
He-Man hauls on a rope, bracing his legs in the wind.
He-Man pulls hard on the rope with both hands.
He-Man stands with arms raised in front of rocks while She-Ra's hair fills the left edge.
He-Man kneels and pushes up against a heavy slab above him.
He-Man and She-Ra hold up a heavy slab with their hands.
The Moon Mirror swirls with colour inside blurred wind streaks.
Bow braces his shoulder against a stone pillar.
A burst of pink and white sparks fills the screen.
Catillus smiles with relief in front of a red wall.
Bow looks on while Adora faces him at the right edge.

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