The Price of Power

Arden, a young sorcerer's apprentice, is told by his teacher Norwin that easier is not always better, then uses a spell to stack firewood anyway. In the village he learns from Norwin that Shadow Weaver changed in one night, stows away on a Horde supply truck and goes to Horror Hall hoping to learn her magic. Shadow Weaver, who hates Norwin, sends the Dark Riders out, and Norwin summons Madame Razz, who brings She-Ra to help. She-Ra and her friends beat the Dark Riders and the guardian Nightfire, and Norwin tells them how Shadow Weaver's deal with the Horde turned her. Shadow Weaver offers Arden a glowing gem if he will strike Norwin down, and Arden refuses it, choosing the teacher who cares about him. Norwin breaks Shadow Weaver's hold with light while She-Ra and Madame Razz carry Arden clear, and Arden returns to his lessons.

Loo-Kee: "Hi, there, friends, I'm Loo-Kee. Did you see where I was hiding in today's show? If not, look now. I'm hiding here. See me? Here I am! In today's story, Arden made a mistake when he went to join Shadow Weaver, but you can bet he won't do that again. We all make mistakes. There's nothing wrong with that. The important thing is for us to learn from our mistakes. That way, we won't make the same mistake again. Bye, now!"

Norwin: "Her way is easy. My way is hard."

Norwin: "The only things worth having are the things you work for."

Arden: "Maybe he's old-fashioned, but at least he cares about me."

Is it cheating to take the easy way? The Price of Power puts the question over a pile of firewood and lets it grow into a rescue from Horror Hall. Arden, apprentice to the sorcerer Norwin, stacks a winter's worth of wood with a rhyme while his teacher is indoors, and Norwin, who notices at once, says they will discuss it when they come back from the village. Arden's complaint is that magic would be quicker, and Norwin's answer is that "easier isn't always better."

The inn scene turns that into something with a name. Horde Troopers collect supplies, the innkeeper, who is owed money, is told to take it up with Shadow Weaver, and Arden says he has heard of her and asks whether she was always that powerful. Norwin says she was a passable sorceress until one night, then puts off the story until Arden is old enough to understand. Arden replies that he understands this may be "just the chance I've been looking for." He settles it by himself on the supply truck: she got her power in one night, and "That's the way for me." He climbs onto the supply truck and rides it to the Nameless Volcano.

Here is what the episode is about: Arden believes he has nothing left to pay with. Shadow Weaver is almost fair about the terms; she tells him that becoming what she is means giving up everything, "friends and other things." He shrugs that he has no friends since he left Norwin and asks "What else could I lose?" The test she sets is Norwin himself, introduced as Arden's surprise, and the surprise shows a boy who thinks he has nothing to lose that the teacher he walked away from is standing in the room.

The gem scene is the best of it. Shadow Weaver holds out a glowing orange stone and says striking Norwin will be easy; Norwin, facing her, agrees that her way is easy and his is hard, and that the only things worth having are the things you work for, friendship included. Arden's refusal is short and quietly unglamorous: Norwin may be old-fashioned, but "at least he cares about me." Nobody rescues him in that moment, though She-Ra is standing right there. He has the choice and takes it.

The She-Ra material is where the episode wobbles. The first half of it is an obstacle course: two Dark Riders sent because Shadow Weaver does not want to wait, then Nightfire, who guards the way into the volcano and ends up frozen by his own beam when She-Ra dodges it. The jokes with Madame Razz and her broom are lively and the flying is fine, but none of it presses on Arden's decision, so the temptation scenes have to compensate for a lot of running time spent elsewhere. Even the flashback about Shadow Weaver's deal with the Horde and the power gem Norwin destroyed gets compressed into a single ride.

Then the episode redeems itself in the last act. She-Ra holds back with "I think Norwin wants to do this alone," and Norwin, who has let himself be held until Arden was safe, shatters the hold and dazzles Shadow Weaver with light, the lesson he says he taught her. Loo-Kee's closing moral is about learning from mistakes, a gentler lesson than the one on screen. Arden's mistake is a real one, though, and the show lets him come back from it. It is a tidy fable about shortcuts, and the title lands.

1. Continuity: It is said that Norwin's two students were Castaspella and Shadow Weaver, and that Shadow Weaver helped betray Etheria to the Horde. The Council of Kings and a power gem from the Horde figure in the account of how she changed.
2. Continuity: An experiment going off when Madame Razz's broom touches a device in the opening is the first of her mishaps here, and the running joke returns in Birds of a Feather.
3. Continuity: Mantenna is the one who challenges Arden when he arrives at Horror Hall, and Shadow Weaver invites Arden to see what became of her as she reaches for her hood.