King Miro's Journey

King Miro, freed from the Enchantress, asks Prince Adam to take him to meet his granddaughter Adora on Etheria. They arrive just as Inspector Darkney comes from Horde Prime to put an end to the rebels, and Hordak answers with a crystal dome that seals the rebels inside Whispering Woods. Adora, with Miro and Madame Razz behind a log, turns the Horde's own rays back with shiny discs, and He-Man lifts the dome away. Miro leaves promising to return, and Loo-Kee closes on family working together as a team.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, take another look. See me here? Here I am! Today's story was about a family, people working together as a team. I hope you do your part for your family. It's the most important team in your life. Bye now! See you next time!"

King Miro: "King Miro kneels before no one."

King Miro: "I am King Miro. I suggest you remember the name, Hordak. You'll be hearing it again."

Inspector Darkney: "A simple solution, Hordak. I'm sure you'd have thought of it, yourself. In a few years."

King Miro: "The fight of my children must always be my fight."

Miro opens the episode in a green cloak and feathered hat, standing before the portraits of Eternia's kings while a bald guide recites Elden the Wise, Valnar the Bold and Frenorn the Strong. When the guide says He-Man and King Randor released Miro from the Enchantress's spell, the cloaked old man answers, "He wasn't so smart. After all, he did let the Enchantress capture him, didn't he?" The guide asks who he is to criticize King Miro, and he says, "Who else but... King Miro." It is a good small joke, and the guide's stammered apology is the best part of it.

The episode then runs two stories side by side. In one, Miro asks Adam to take him to Etheria to see the granddaughter he last saw as a baby, and Adam says the Sorceress will help. In the other, Mantenna warns Hordak that an inspector is coming from Horde Prime, and Hordak tells him, "Go ahead... make me laugh!" and then rules, "Not funny." The road-crossing joke works later. Adora puts on a dented Horde helmet to jog a bird's memory, then hands it to Madame Razz, who says she can't see anything with it on.

The episode asks whether a king remembered for being captured can still count for something when it matters. Miro's first test on Etheria is a Horde patrol that demands a dance and then a kneel. He answers, "King Miro kneels before no one," and the patrol replies, "Never heard of him." Hordak has heard of him. Facing Miro at the dome, he says, "I knew of only one King Miro, and he was trouble," and Miro returns, "You're right, and you are in trouble, Hordak."

The dome is the standout stretch. Darkney's plan is a generator big enough to surround Whispering Woods: "If we can't get in, then the next best thing is to keep them from getting out." Inside, Razz speaks a rhyme, "Forces of forest, grass and field, give us a bright and shiny shield," and what appears are small discs. Razz says they are too small, and the answer comes back, "But they are shields. As shiny as mirrors." The plan is to reflect the attack bots' rays right back at them. The frames show Miro and Razz crouched behind a fallen log with a disc each while the broom covers its mouth. He-Man then holds the generator overhead, and Hordak is told to take his toy and go home.

The weakness is that Miro has little to do in that payoff. His declaration to Hordak is "I suggest you remember the name, Hordak. You'll be hearing it again," and the next thing he does is hold a disc behind a log while He-Man does the lifting. Hordak's line about the one King Miro he knew goes nowhere either. It hints at an old history with the Horde, and the episode never returns to it. A king introduced as the man who got captured needs one act the guide could not sneer at. The reflected shot would have been that act, and the episode gives it to nobody in particular.

The farewell gives the portrait scene its answer. Miro tells Adora, "When the day of your great battle with Hordak comes, call for me," and when someone says "You have quite a family," Adora replies, "Yes, we do. We're very lucky." The episode works better as a family story than an action one, and Miro's promise is the part that stays with you.

1. Continuity: Miro's backstory is carried by the portrait gallery guide: he disappeared when Adam was a child and was released from the Enchantress's spell by He-Man and King Randor, and the farewell sets up a promise that Miro will return when Adora's great battle with Hordak comes.