Something Old, Something New

Eli, a young magician sent by Candor for a final lesson with Madam Razz, turns three of Shadow Weaver's robots into trees and keeps the Serenity Stone they were carrying. Adora and Bow take him to the Whispering Woods, where he doubts Madam Razz can teach him anything. Her bucket spell goes wrong, and Eli changes the course of the river. A voice posing as Candor calls him away, and the river floods the camp. As She-Ra, Adora digs a trench to hold the water, then flies with Madam Razz toward Candor's mountain. Over Serenia they are drawn into the Balance Center of Etheria, where a voice says the stolen stone must be returned. In a cave, Eli learns that Shadow Weaver wants the stone and that it, not he, was the source of his power. Madam Razz and Eli join their magic to help She-Ra, who returns the stone to its place. Madam Razz stops a falling rock with a rhyme, and Shadow Weaver is whirled off toward Horror Hall on her own chain. Eli admits he has learned not to brag, and Loo-Kee closes on that lesson.

Loo-Kee: "Hi, I'm Loo-Kee. Did you find my hiding place today? If not, try again. See me here? Here I am! In today's story Eli bragged about everything he did. Well, nobody liked it. Being proud of yourself is fine, but bragging about it isn't. Just let your actions speak for themselves. Bye now!"

Eli: "I'd say I'm the best."

Madam Razz: "Just because your magic is newer, that doesn't mean it's better."

Eli: "All this time, I thought it was my magic, but it was really the stone."

Shadow Weaver: "Now I will be the most powerful magician on Etheria."

She-Ra: "Don't count your stones before they're hatched, Weaver."

Talent is easy to mistake for a loan. Eli is a young magician sent by his teacher Candor to Madam Razz for a final lesson, and he arrives sure he needs none. Adora and Bow find him just after he has turned three of Shadow Weaver's robots into trees with a rhyme. Told he must be a good magician, he corrects them: "I'd say I'm the best." The title sets him against Madam Razz, and the first half lets the pair misfire in different ways.

The writing is fair to both. Madam Razz's old-school spellwork fails first. Showing Eli the wash, she tries to bring buckets of water with a rhyme, mixes up "hill" and "wheel," and has to stop the buckets with a second verse. Her comment afterwards is a good one: "You know, after I said it, I knew it should have been hill, not wheel." Eli's new-style magic fails next, and it fails bigger. He offers to bring the river to the camp so that Madam can rest, and she bristles: "Just because your magic is newer, that doesn't mean it's better." He is warned that "there's always a danger when you change mother nature." He casts the spell anyway. Neither magician comes out well, and Adora is left to smooth things over.

Shadow Weaver's plan is the better piece of plotting. She sent her robots to steal the Serenity Stone, and when a boy takes it from them she does not chase him. She sends a voice that sounds like Candor, and Eli goes straight to it. The lure works because he is vain. A teacher calling for his help is just what he expects to hear. The fake gives itself away through a fact about Candor: he rests for at least 100 years after training a student.

The standout scene is in the cave. Eli faces Shadow Weaver and learns that the stone "magnifies one's powers a thousand times." He works it out aloud: "All this time, I thought it was my magic, but it was really the stone." Then he adds, "Oh, I made a fool of myself." It is the first moment where he stops boasting. After the bluster, the drop is short and quiet. Shadow Weaver takes the stone with a line of her own: "Now I will be the most powerful magician on Etheria."

The weakness is the stakes. Madam Razz describes Serenia, the Balance Center of Etheria, as the place that keeps the world level. If anything happened to it, "Etheria would tip sideways." She-Ra tells Shadow Weaver that without the stone Etheria will begin to fly out of orbit, and "that could be any minute." But the danger arrives as a falling rock and a dropped stone. She-Ra puts the stone back in a few lines, the damaged castle is mended, and the trouble is over almost as quickly as it starts. The ride there is livelier than the crisis, with Madam Razz tumbling off her broom and onto Swift Wind.

The ending pairs the two magicians properly. Madam Razz says they can put their magic together to help She-Ra. Eli asks why she would want his help after all the trouble, and she says she was young once herself. His answer is "Well, I say let's go for it." She-Ra then turns Shadow Weaver's own chain on her and sends her spinning. Eli says what he learned: "I've learned not to brag and show off." Loo-Kee takes the same note. It is a modest fable with a good villain scheme, and the best thing in it is Eli finding out that his boast was borrowed.

1. Continuity: Eli casts with rhymes taught by his teacher Candor, and Shadow Weaver explains the stone she wants: "The Serenity Stone magnifies the power of anyone who possesses it."
2. Continuity: Madam Razz says she used to live in Serenia when she was younger, then corrects herself to "600 years ago."
3. Continuity: The faked call from Candor draws Eli away from camp; it is known to be false because Candor rests at least 100 years after training a student.
4. Note: Madam Razz's line "Just because your magic is newer, that doesn't mean it's better" is the nearest the script comes to explaining its title.
5. Production: Carol Baxter wrote the episode and Richard Trueblood directed it; it first aired on 1986-12-05.