Return of the General

Hordak attacks Bright Moon and She-Ra drives off his tanks with a bush trick and a steel arrow, then goes looking for General Sunder, a former Horde Commander who now lives as a farmer with his wife Mally and daughter Telzy. While they talk, Hordak raids the farms and takes the villagers prisoner, Mally and Telzy among them. Sunder puts his old armor back on, and a message arrives saying the villagers are held in the Fright Zone. He insists on going alone because he knows the place better than Hordak, and he warns that Hordak will repeat his air attack on Bright Moon. The rebels are ready and beat it back while Sunder gets into the dungeons through a drain and frees his family. Hordak stuns him, but Sunder destroys the freeze cannon, She-Ra leads the bat mechs away, and the prisoners escape. Sunder goes back to his farm, offering help if the Rebellion ever needs him, and Loo-Kee closes with a lesson about showing your family you care.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! I'm Loo-Kee. Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, try again. Can you see me now? Here I am! General Sunder rescued his family because he cared about them more than anything. Just the way your family cares about you. Why not show them you appreciate them by giving them a gift of love? A big hug! Do it now! See you next time!"

Sunder: "I'd like to forget that I was once part of the Horde."

Sunder: "As a soldier, I learned that the biggest problem with peace is that sometimes you have to fight to keep it."

Sunder: "Hordak's very predictable that way."

Hordak: "Yes, it was a stupid idea of yours. Remind me to punish you later!"

Sunder: "I find I'd rather grow things than blow them up."

Peace is easy to love and hard to defend, and this episode keeps both ideas in view. Sunder has hung up his armor to raise a farm in Bright Moon, but the Horde does not let that stand. Hordak's raids take his family, and the story asks what a man owes the life he chose.

The opening gives the answer a quiet setup. Telzy marches about and says, "I'm a soldier, just like Daddy." Mally gently reminds her that "Daddy's not a soldier anymore, remember? He's a farmer." Sunder then says Bright Moon is "the one place that is safe from the Horde", and we know what that line is worth. Thunder rolls, someone says "I hope", and moments later Bow tells She-Ra that Hordak is attacking Bright Moon.

Hordak is written as a man who repeats himself, and Sunder reads him at once. "It worked when he attacked the villages, so he'll do it again," he says. "Hordak's very predictable that way." The same trait carries the comedy. Hordak says, "We attacked the village successfully from the air, so let's do the same thing with Castle Bright Moon." Mantenna cries, "Oh, brilliant, Master!" and Hordak replies, "I know. Genius, isn't it?" When the rebels turn out to be ready, he tells Mantenna, "Yes, it was a stupid idea of yours. Remind me to punish you later!" The line is petty and well timed.

The standout scene is the chest. Sunder has packed his gear away and says he never wanted to open it again. She-Ra tells him, "As a farmer, you lived a life of peace. It's a shame that you must go to war again." His answer is the center of the episode: "As a soldier, I learned that the biggest problem with peace is that sometimes you have to fight to keep it." The frames show a man in a black bodysuit, then full gray armor with a red cape. It is a plain change of costume, and the scene gives it weight without a speech. She-Ra also names her own past when she says, "Adora was also a Horde soldier once", which ties the two of them together in a sentence.

The weakness is the stun beam. Hordak boasts, "That stun beam will hold the Rebel for hours." Sunder lies stunned in one frame, and within half a minute he has wrecked the freeze cannon and is talking to She-Ra. It is a fast fix for a scene that needed one. The guard on the prisoners is another convenience, since Sunder himself notes that Hordak has left only a few robots on guard.

Sunder insists on the dangerous job himself: "I know the Fright Zone better than Hordak himself." The rescue is brisk. Telzy spots her father and calls out, an alarm sounds, and the prisoners move while She-Ra draws the bat mechs away. The last frames show Hordak hanging from a parachute, and the farmers go home.

The ending keeps its promise. Sunder says, "I find I'd rather grow things than blow them up," and adds that if the Rebellion needs him he will be there. In the show's context, this one earns its warmth by letting a soldier stay a soldier long enough to finish the job. It is a small, tidy episode built on one good character.

1. Production: Written by Bob Forward and directed by Richard Trueblood, first broadcast 1986-09-20.
2. Continuity: A bowman answers "Bowmen ready, sir" in the same drill that opens the Bright Moon defense in Portrait of Doom.
3. Continuity: Hordak tells the prisoners they will be guests for "a long, long time", a similar threat Hordak makes in Portrait of Doom.
4. Note: Sunder, once a Horde Commander, knows how the Fright Zone works, and She-Ra says Adora was also a Horde soldier once.