Portrait of Doom

Catra's latest attack on the rebels has been crushed, and in the Fright Zone Shadow Weaver offers Hordak a plan to make one rebel help destroy the others. In the rebel camp, Spritina is sure she has no talent for the Summer Moon Festival, so a hooded painter, who is really Catra, lends her magic paints. Spritina paints portraits of Netossa, Bow and their friends, and each sitter weakens, vanishes, and ends up as a captive picture in Horde Prime's collection. Madame Razz grows suspicious, and She-Ra senses that the paintings are alive just as Catra attacks Bright Moon. A spell shows Razz the Fright Zone and her trapped friends, and Spritina and Sprint slip into the Fright Zone to rescue them, only to be caught by Hordak. With Catra's troops away, She-Ra finds the Fright Zone nearly empty and rescues them, then lures Catra off while the twiggets carry the paintings to safety. Madame Razz's rhyming spell frees Bow and the others, Bow tells a guilty Spritina she is special to them all, and Loo-Kee closes with a lesson about making the best of what you have.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's Loo-Kee again. Did you find where I was hiding today? No? Well, I'll give you another chance. Look carefully. I'm over here! In today's story, we saw how Spritina wished she could play an instrument like Bow. But you know, what really matters is to make the best of what you have, and not waste your time wishing you were like somebody else. Bye now! See you next time."

Spritina: "I can't sing, I can't dance, or tell stories, or... Anything."

Catra: "Her magic paints will be the end of She-Ra and those miserable rebels!"

She-Ra: "It's like these paintings are... Are alive."

Madame Razz: "They were enchanted with Shadow Weaver's evil magic."

Bow: "You may think you can't do anything special, Spritina, but, to us, you'll always be very, very special."

Talent is the quiet subject here, and the Horde turns it into a weapon. Spritina is sure she has none, and everyone around her has a festival act ready, so a gift that makes her useful is the one thing she cannot refuse. Shadow Weaver understands this before the first scene is over.

The story opens in the Horde throne room, where Catra is told the rebels have crushed one of her "rashly ill-planned attacks" and answers with a whine about rebel spies everywhere. Shadow Weaver steps in with a plan to get one rebel to help destroy She-Ra and the rest. The idea is simple and cruel, because nobody has to fight if a friend will do the work for them.

The rebel camp scenes carry the character work. Bow plays his harp, and Sprint takes a tumble that leaves him face down on the grass. Spritina watches them both, and when she is asked what she will do for the Summer Moon Festival she says, "I can't sing, I can't dance, or tell stories, or... Anything." A moment later she adds, "I'm gonna be a big dud at the festival." The scene is small but it makes the trap fair. A stranger in a pink hood only has to say what she wants to hear: "You can paint portraits of your friends. They'll love that." Spritina's reply, "I don't know how to do anything", is the line the plot turns on.

The best scene comes after the paintings start to work. Netossa grows tired, Bow droops, and the portraits pile up at camp until She-Ra arrives and stops at the easels. She says, "It's like these paintings are... Are alive." A voice from the canvases cries, "Someone help. Can't move." Madame Razz then asks Spritina where she learned to paint, and Spritina replies, "Well, I didn't learn exactly. There was this woman, and she had some magic paints." Nobody shouts, and the clue is already on screen. All the camp has to do is see it.

The weakness is how empty the Horde has become by the end. Catra's attack on Bright Moon pulls so many troops away that She-Ra walks into the Fright Zone and finds almost no one. Hordak, who has just caught Sprint and Spritina, is left shouting "Guards, troopers, help! Where is everybody?" The joke is funny, and it is also a convenience. A second threat, Catra heading for Thamor, is raised and dropped. The rebels admit they cannot defend both Bright Moon and Thamor, and the answer is "We'll just have to do our best." The dialogue never returns to it.

Catra's disguise gets the same light handling. Her reveal in front of the red bush is a good beat, but it comes after Spritina has already taken the paints. Shadow Weaver is thanked once over the finished portraits and then drops out of the story. The rescue is carried by Madame Razz and a small rhyme, not by anyone beating the trap, and the paintings that held the rebels simply let go.

Still, the ending earns its softness. Spritina walks away, afraid the others will be angry. Bow tells her, "You may think you can't do anything special, Spritina, but, to us, you'll always be very, very special." It is a plain line, and it answers the worry the story opened with. As a Horde scheme this one is small in scale and kind in its lesson. It is a modest episode with a clear heart, and Spritina is the reason it holds.

1. Production: Written by J. Larry Carroll and directed by Bill Nunes, first broadcast 1987-11-07.
2. Continuity: The air-attack drill at Bright Moon ("Bowmen ready, Queen Angella." "Once again we must fight for the freedom of our home!") is worded almost the same way, with a bowman reporting in, in Return of the General.
3. Continuity: Hordak's "long, long time" threat to the captured twiggets is the same phrase he uses on the prisoners in Return of the General.
4. Note: Portraits of Netossa and Kowl hang on the Fright Zone wall, and the "collection" mentioned over the finished portraits belongs to Horde Prime.