She-Ra Unchained

Hordak finishes the Magna Beam Transporter, a weapon that can send all of Whispering Woods, Rebels included, to the Valley of the Lost, and it runs on the willpower drained from prisoners in the Plunder Room. He-Man slips into the Fright Zone to reach Adora and gets her to say she knows the Horde is evil, yet she still has him arrested. Locked in the charger, he is saved when the Sorceress calls Adora to her destiny, and she takes up the sword.

Melendy Britt as She-Ra, Adora and Catra

George DiCenzo as Hordak and Bow

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

John Erwin as He-Man and Adam

Alan Oppenheimer as Cringer, captured Rebels and the Announcer

Erika Scheimer as Imp

Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Kowl, Mantenna, Swift Wind and Horde Trooper

Hordak: "This, Imp, is the most fearsome weapon in the Horde arsenal."

Adora: "Yes, I know. I know that you are a lying Rebel spy and that you are under arrest."

Adora: "But it is for the good of the Horde. It must be done. Yet why do I feel so unsure?"

Hordak: "My Magna Beam wasted on a rock!"

Adam has become He-Man and slipped into the Fright Zone in a trooper's armour. In a corridor of Doom Tower he finds Force Captain Adora and asks what he came to ask: did she go out to the villages and learn for herself that the Horde is evil? She says yes. He presses, "So now you know, right?" and she replies, "Yes, I know. I know that you are a lying Rebel spy and that you are under arrest."

The spine of "She-Ra Unchained" is that Adora already knows the Horde is wrong and keeps serving it, and the plot waits for the Sorceress to give her a reason to act. Hordak's Magna Beam Transporter runs on willpower, and the Plunder Room supplies it. The first prisoner we meet was caught trying to stop a trooper from arresting his brother. He tells Hordak, "The people of Etheria will not bow to rule by force, not now, not ever," and once he is in the machine he says, "I feel so...weak." Hordak's verdict on him is "He has great strength of will. He will do nicely." Adora is among those watching.

The best scene comes after her argument with He-Man has failed. Hordak orders the Rebel put in the Magna Beam charger and asks, "You have an objection, Force Captain?" Adora answers, "No objections, my liege." Earlier, Hordak has waved off Shadow Weaver's warning that the swords "are not of this world" with "There is no hurry." Later Adora goes down to the Plunder Room alone, watches the strong Rebel grow weaker, and says, "But it is for the good of the Horde. It must be done. Yet why do I feel so unsure?" Nobody has told her anything new at that point.

The weak spot is the minute after that. The Sorceress appears and tells her to "throw off the enchantments that have made you a slave to the Horde's will," names the man in the cage as He-Man, and then says, "This man is your brother, Adora." Her doubt in the Plunder Room is the strongest thing in the script, and the Sorceress labels it the work of enchantment before the brother reveal does the persuading. Adora is still asking "For the honor of Grayskull?" as a question when the Sorceress finishes. The better order is to let her free the prisoner on the strength of "Yet why do I feel so unsure?" and hold the brother back until she has the sword in her hand. Then "My brother!" would land as the reward for a choice she had already made.

The back half is quicker. Spirit becomes Swift Wind, and when Hordak turns on the Magna Beam to hit Whispering Woods, She-Ra says, "Wait, that big rock just might do it." Hordak had introduced the machine as "the most fearsome weapon in the Horde arsenal," so "My Magna Beam wasted on a rock!" is the funniest line of the episode. Hordak ends it with "Not good enough, Rebel. I still have you."

Verdict: the Plunder Room scene is the best of the episode, and the Sorceress's speech takes the decision out of Adora's hands just after it. When she says "I am She-Ra!" she is acting on something the audience watched her carry through the episode, and the script gives the credit to the Sorceress.

1. Behind the scenes: the original title of this episode was "The Sword of She-Ra Part III", and it is where the Valley of the Lost is introduced. Diane Keener's design for She-Ra was approved on September 19, 1984, and the transformation line was originally "By the grace of Grayskull" before it became the version heard here. The wiki also records animation errors in the episode.
2. Continuity: Adam's question "do you remember the last time we talked?" points back to an earlier conversation in which he asked Adora to see the villages for herself; that talk is not shown here.
3. Continuity: the Sorceress tells Adora she was taken from her parents as a baby and had a twin brother. Reunions tells Baby Adora's kidnapping differently from the flashback in Into Etheria.