The Bibbet Story

Hordak sends Mantenna and a Horde force against the Rebellion in the town of Devlan, but She-Ra wrecks the robot troopers with logs and a rope, and Hordak blames Mantenna. Shadow Weaver proposes a new robot factory in Bibbet Land, with captured Bibbets as workers. Adora and Bow, admiring the flowers there, find half the forest already cut down and camp for the night. Two young Bibbets, Koo and Dee, steal the Combow and Adora's sword, trap the pair and take them for Horde soldiers. The Elder believes them, has the weapons returned and explains that the Bibbets believe only in peace and that he once promised Hordak they would carry no weapons. Koo and Dee run off to fight anyway and are caught by robot troopers. Bow and Adora set out to find them, and Adora, who cannot become She-Ra without her sword, uses ideas instead. Once she has the sword back she transforms and takes on the robots. Bow persuades the Elder that peace may need defending, and the Bibbets join in and help She-Ra destroy the factory. Loo-Kee closes with a talk on what real courage means.

Loo-Kee: "Hi everybody, did you see me in today's show? You're not sure? Take another look. Here I am. In today's show, Koo and Dee were so anxious to show off how brave they were, that they ran off to fight the Horde on their own, and almost got in serious trouble. But fighting doesn't prove how brave you are, sometimes it takes more courage to walk away from a fight. Bye now!"

Hordak: "Excuses! That's all I ever hear from you."

Elder: "I hate violence, but what you say makes sense."

Adora: "I can't transform into She-Ra without my sword, so I'll have to use ideas instead of muscles."

She-Ra: "One more robot bites the dust."

Who gets to decide when a peaceful people must fight? That is the question under The Bibbet Story, and the episode never settles on one tidy answer. Hordak wants a new robot factory, Shadow Weaver picks a forest for it, and the forest turns out to belong to people who have sworn off fighting. Two rebels wander in and find that the people who live there would rather not fight.

The setup is quick and clean. She-Ra wrecks Mantenna's robot troopers in the town of Devlan with a few logs and a rope, and Hordak turns on Mantenna at once: "Excuses! That's all I ever hear from you." Shadow Weaver reports that most of the robot army is gone. Hordak tells her to build more, and she answers that she will put the factory in Bibbet Land and "force them to be our new workers." The Horde gets a plan and a victim in a few short scenes.

Adora and Bow wander into Bibbet Land admiring the flowers, and one of them says the place should stay "as a natural wildlife area." Then they see the felled trees. The writing is tidy here. The forest is shown as lovely before it is shown as damaged, which makes the factory feel like an insult before anyone says a word about it.

The Bibbets themselves are the best part of the script. Koo and Dee steal the Combow and Adora's sword while the visitors sleep, catch them with their feet tied and haul them in as Horde fighters. The Elder is calm about the mistake. He believes the strangers at once, then says "fighting is not our way." The young Bibbets are the ones who want a war, and the funniest beat is one of them trying to work the Combow: "Uh, no. I guess it's that one." Koo and Dee have the courage and none of the skill, and the episode lets that be comic and a little frightening at the same time.

The standout scene comes late. The Elder tells the rescuers that his people "simply do not believe in fighting," and Bow does not argue about right and wrong. He argues about what comes next: "they won't stop at cutting down the forest to build a factory." The Elder gives in. "I hate violence, but what you say makes sense." It is a short exchange and it works because nobody shouts. Bow also repeats a line from Adora, that it is sometimes harder not to fight than to fight, so both sides get to be right at once.

The weakness is a loose thread. Midway, the Elder explains that he promised Hordak the Bibbets would carry no weapons, and that Hordak will attack if Koo and Dee are caught armed. That is a real threat, and the story never pays it off. When the Bibbets do take up arms, Hordak says only "Capture them now," and the promise is not mentioned again. Shadow Weaver, who started the whole trouble, is not seen again after the Fright Zone scene. The Bibbets turn at the Elder's say-so, and the fighting that follows is cheerful and brief.

There is also a mismatch at the end. Loo-Kee's closing talk says that "fighting doesn't prove how brave you are" and that sometimes it takes more courage to walk away from a fight. The last scene has the Elder thank She-Ra for a lesson in defending peace and freedom, after the Bibbets have helped bring down the robots, and another voice answers that choosing not to fight takes as much courage as fighting. The moral fits Koo and Dee, who ran off to prove themselves. It fits the Elder less well.

As a Season 2 outing, this is a modest, likable story with a clear idea and a good supporting cast. It lacks the bite of the episodes that give Hordak a real argument to answer. What it has is a gentle people, a fair debate and a pair of young troublemakers who are easy to like.

1. Continuity: The Elder says he promised Hordak that the Bibbets would not carry weapons, and that Hordak would attack if Koo and Dee were caught with them.
2. Continuity: Adora says she cannot transform into She-Ra without her sword, so Koo and Dee's theft leaves her without it for much of the middle of the story.
3. Continuity: Hordak sends Mantenna to push She-Ra out of the way in Devlan, and blames Mantenna when the robot army falls; Mantenna answers that Grizzlor was there too.
4. Production: Don Heckman wrote the episode and Marsh Lamore directed it; it aired on 1987-12-05.