The Sea Hawk

She-Ra and Swift Wind rescue a sinking sea elf boat near Seaworthy and hear about a flying monster that has frightened the village. The monster is a pirate ship, where Adora is caught spying by Captain Sea Hawk and talked aboard by his mate, Swen. Sea Hawk sells supplies to Catra at Horde Harbor, then gives Adora up when Catra threatens his ship. Shamed by Swen's honesty, he storms the Horde air cruiser, frees her, and joins the Rebellion, having learned that freedom means more than profit and that looking for the good in people pays off.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's me, Loo-Kee. Did you find where I was hiding? If not, take another look. Here I am! When I first saw Sea Hawk I thought he was a bad person, but She-Ra looked for the good in him, and found it. If you look for the good in people you'll usually find it. And you might just find a new friend. So look for the good in people. Bye now! See you next time!"

Melendy Britt as She-Ra/Adora and Catra

George DiCenzo as Hordak, Sea Hawk, Swen and the Horde Computer

Erika Scheimer as Sea Elf 2 and Loo-Kee

Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Swift Wind, Grizzlor, Mayor Guppi, Sea Elf 1, Mate and Horde Trooper

Swen: "Well, begging the Captain's pardon and all that, sir, but turning Adora over to the Horde was a pretty cowardly act, sir."

Adora: "No one on this planet will truly be free, including you, until the day that Hordak and his evil empire leave this planet forever."

Hordak: "That is our policy. Rewards for success. Punishment for failure."

Sea Hawk: "Broil me in butter and call me a flounder."

Sea Hawk is first seen robbing a sea elf storehouse, and by the time Adora is brought aboard his ship he has a speech ready. "I work for no one but myself." She has just told him she does not want to share a ship with a man who works for the Horde, and she follows up with "Hordak pays you, doesn't he?" He has no answer to that, only more talk about roaming the seas.

The script gives him charm along with the vanity. He catches Adora spying in the woods and tells her she looks "too smart to be lost and too beautiful to be an elf." Catra greets him with "Hawk, dearest," and at Horde Harbor he loses the thread of the negotiation because he is "thinking about that little sea fairy." He is easy to like, which matters, because the episode needs the audience on his side before it asks him to change.

The episode is about the difference between Sea Hawk calling himself free and being free. Adora puts it to him early: "No one on this planet will truly be free, including you, until the day that Hordak and his evil empire leave this planet forever." Horde Harbor is the test. Catra says "Or I'll have your precious ship destroyed," and the man who boasted about roaming wherever he will manages only "A-arrest her." Adora is taken away, and he tells Catra he had no loyalty to the Rebels.

The best scene is the quiet one on the Solar Sailor. Swen asks to speak and says that "turning Adora over to the Horde was a pretty cowardly act, sir." Sea Hawk says he could clap Swen in chains, and Swen answers "But you won't, sir." He adds "we've lost all our pride." Adora's line about nobody being free is heard again, and the captain gives the order "Hard about, Mr. Swen." He makes no speech of his own. The decision belongs to a sentence the audience has already heard and to a mate who will say the hard thing to his face.

The weakness is the last third. Sea Hawk has already turned the ship around, boarded the air cruiser, got the keys and told Adora "It took you to bring it out." That finishes his side of the story. Then She-Ra saves him from Catra, he says "I owe you for that one," and she answers "I want you to stop helping the Horde and start helping the Rebellion." Now his switch looks like repayment, and a choice he made on his own deck gets credited to a favour. She does say that in his heart he would rather fight for freedom than profit, but that comes after the debt, and he agrees only once she has named her price. The episode should have let the order to turn back be the end of his arc and kept She-Ra from asking him for anything.

Even so, it works. Sea Hawk is vain, funny and likable, and Swen is the right person to turn him. A better last scene would have trusted that.

1. Behind the scenes: The story is credited to Michael Chase Walker and the teleplay to Larry DiTillio. DiTillio's script was approved on November 9, 1984. Its final revision is dated February 26, 1985. Swen was modeled on Smee from Peter Pan, and the original script had one-eyed robots where the aired episode has Horde Troopers. Grizzlor's look had not yet been finalized, and Adora's final line is a reference to Casablanca.
2. Continuity: She-Ra uses telepathic communication here, as she did earlier in Battle for Bright Moon. The sword-unsheathing animation is based on the one in "The Rainbow Warrior", and the Grizzlor grab animation is reused in Return of the Sea Hawk, where Sea Hawk comes back; he also returns in "The Sea Gate".
3. Continuity: While in her Adora disguise, Adora addresses her horse as Spirit, and Sea Hawk wonders aloud whether his "mysterious lady talks to horses." Hordak and Shadow Weaver follow Catra's progress on a monitor in the Fright Zone.
4. Credits: The title card reads "Story by Michael Chase Walker" and "Teleplay by Larry DiTillio".