Into Etheria

The Sorceress sends Prince Adam and Cringer through a gate that has never opened, carrying a sword that will lead him to someone with a special destiny. On Etheria he meets Bow and Kowl in the Laughing Swan Inn, helps beat three Hordesmen, and is taken to the Great Rebellion's small camp in Whispering Woods. When the Horde arrests the village of Thaymor to flush out the culprits, the rebels decide to fight for it rather than surrender anyone, and a rescue turns to a pitched battle that ends on a cliffhanger.

John Erwin as He-Man, Adam

Melendy Britt as Adora, Catra

George DiCenzo as Hordak, Bow, Horde Trooper

Linda Gary as the Sorceress, Glimmer, Shadow Weaver, Madame Razz, Scorpia

Alan Oppenheimer as Cringer, the Announcer

Lou Scheimer (as Erik Gunden) as the Narrator, Kowl, Mantenna, Leech, Broom, Horde Troopers

Kowl: "The only time a Hordesman ever smiles is when he's doing something awful to someone."

Cringer: "Hm, doesn't look so great to me."

Kowl: "Most perceptive of you, friend Cringer. It is, in fact, a very small rebellion at present."

Bow: "I'm not a citizen. I'm a rebel."

When Adam is brought into the camp in Whispering Woods, Cringer looks around and mutters "Hm, doesn't look so great to me." Kowl, who could have bristled, replies "Most perceptive of you, friend Cringer. It is, in fact, a very small rebellion at present." The script lets a newcomer call its heroes small to their faces, and that candour is the best thing in Into Etheria.

The setup on Eternia is the thinnest part. The Sorceress has a sword, a door that "has never opened before" and no answers for Adam: "Adam, please, ask no questions." Cringer is the one thinking of lunch ("I haven't even had lunch yet"), and Etheria introduces itself at the Laughing Swan Inn. Kowl urges calm ("Now, Bow, let's not be rash") while Hordesmen bully a bard, Adam is grabbed, and Bow steps in with "Mind if I join you?" His answer to "Surrender, citizen" is the first real statement of the episode: "I'm not a citizen. I'm a rebel."

A rebellion becomes one on the day its handful of members refuse to let somebody else pay for them. The episode tests that at Thaymor. The Horde has arrested the village for the three troopers Bow and Adam beat, and will send everyone to the mines unless the culprits give themselves up. Bow offers the noble and useless answer ("maybe they'll be happy with just me"). Adam turns it down: "there must be a way to save the village without giving in." Glimmer's "Let's save Thaymor" is where the camp stops being a joke, because nobody is handed over.

Madame Razz's arrival is the best scene in that stretch. It plays as slapstick: a broom that cannot tell left from right ("Oh, oh, left, Broom. No, no, right!"), three trees wrecked on the way down, and a message she cannot recall ("Now, what was that, again?"). The news still gets delivered, because "The village of Thaymor, the Horde!" is what sets the rescue moving.

The weakness is what happens once the plan is running. The rebels have a division of labour: Madame is to free the villagers, Bow is to give the signal with an arrow she has enchanted, and the others are to keep the Horde busy. Then Leech has Glimmer pinned and draining, Bow is caught in a grip from Leech and Scorpia, and Adam calls "By the power of Grayskull!" and becomes He-Man. Adam did say his friend would be "ready when the time comes," so the rescue was always part of the plan. Even so, the rebels' first fight ends only because He-Man arrives. The episode should have let the camp's plan visibly work before he turns up, and kept him for the job they could not manage, Catra and Scorpia.

The ending is abrupt. "The fight is over, young lady" is answered by a single "What?" and the episode stops before anyone says who has won. As an opener it works: the cast is introduced, the camp is shown to be small, and Thaymor gives it a reason to fight. It loses marks for handing its first victory to He-Man.

1. Behind the scenes: The episode was originally titled "The Sword of She-Ra Part I: Into Etheria". The script was approved on May 26, 1984. Its final revision is dated September 26.
2. Continuity: Shadow Weaver tells Hordak that a stranger from another world has come to Etheria and brings "the seed of great trouble for the Horde." Hordak answers by sending for Force Captain Adora.
3. Continuity: The Sorceress's opening dream, in which a voice declares "you'll never see this child again" and a cry of "Adora!" follows, shows a Hordesman gripping the Sorceress.
4. Continuity: Sprag, a Twigget sentry, challenges Bow and Kowl at the edge of the camp.