The Sleepers Awaken, Return of the Gryphon, Return of Granamir

and the Masters of the Universe! I am Adam, Prince

of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle

Grayskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend.

Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the

day I held aloft my magic sword and said, By

the power of Grayskull! The Cringer became the

mighty Battle Cat, and I became He -Man, the

most powerful man in the universe. Only three

others share this secret. Our friends, the Sorceress,

Planet Arms, and Orko. Together, we defend Castle

Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor. Hello,

this is Stephen Mike and welcome to the 18th

chapter in the tales of returning it with me

for this journey into the Masters of the universe

franchise is optimus solo. Hello That's right

And are you ready for the powers of grayskull,

sir? I'm always ready as we get close to winding

down season one Yeah, we're almost there almost

there I know of a couple of changes right off

the bat, just by looking at our schedule. Yeah,

no spoilers. No, no, no, it's in an episode title.

Fury of Fisto or Fisto's Fury or something or

other, so we're gonna get to see Fisto at least.

But what I will say is, it's really, like when

we first started this show, I was solely basing

everything off my childhood. what I thought I

remembered and now ever since the 2012 DC Comics

miniseries for He -Man and the Masters of the

Universe ever since I read that and I'm currently

reading the ongoing comic from DC this show oh

my god I love this show but yikes oh boy all

right So in this episode of Tales of Eternia,

we will be giving you our thoughts on episode

52, The Sleepers Awaken, episode 53, Return of

the Gryphon, and episode 54, The Return of Granamir.

We have a lot of returns today. Yes, we do. So

we hope you are ready, because it's time to go

back to Eternia. Now that is one spooky old castle.

It was even spookier 200 years ago. According

to an old legend, Lord Tyrion and Lady Volterra

lived there, and by evil magic, they drew their

energy from the trees in the forest. They kept

on until the trees were all used up. With their

energy supply gone, well, they had to do something.

So Lord Tyrion and Lady Volterra went to sleep,

and slept for centuries, waiting for the trees

in the forest to grow. We will sleep, Valtira,

while the energy in the trees grows strong, and

the world forgets how wicked we were. Don't worry,

my pet. We've included you in our plans. Shall

we? Good night, little Seigo. I shall awaken

first, to make sure all is well. Good night,

Taran. Take care of Seigo. Alright, first up

is The Sleeper's Awaken. The writer is Doug Booth.

He also wrote Masks of Power, Return of Orko's

Uncle, Valley of Power, and Orko's favorite uncle.

There seems to be themes there. Yeah, you think?

A lot of power, a lot of uncles. Uncles of Power!

Take it away! date man and plot man? Yeah, the

original air date for this would have been Tuesday,

November 15th, 1983. And the plot goes something

like that. While searching for winged horses,

or as they say in the episode Winged Horses,

Prince Adam and Tila discover a mysterious castle

whose evil inhabitants Lord Tyran and Lady Valtyra

once resided over 200 years ago. Lady Valtyra

awakes inside the castle and notices that Lord

Tyran has already awoken. Searching for him,

she encounters Adam and provokes a gaunt looking

stranger into an attack fueled by jealousy. He

-Man and Lady Valtira escape into the castle,

unaware that the stranger that attacked them

is actually Lord Tyran, warped by the evil power

that consumed him over the years. We don't have

any evil warriors yet again. Masters we have

just Tila and He -Man slash Adam, and the PSA

is all about not eating before bed and stuff

like that. Clearly the random PSA but back to

the plot sir. We have the the two lords and lady

there who Put basically put themselves into a

deep sleep for hundreds of years while there

are trees and whatnot grow Obviously doesn't

go so well for him. She wakes up and he's a crazy

lunatic. What do you think of the plot? It's

it's kind of average I liked it Now that I'm

When I saw that Doug Booth was the writer, I

don't know what it was, but I didn't think anything

about orco's uncle episodes I thought more of

whatever he wrote on Trent like the bad Elliot

because one of my notes is finally an episode

that Doug Booth wrote that I actually like But

the plot is is well structured I like that they

That lady what's -her -nuts she'd Learns a lesson

pretty fast You know it doesn't take the whole

episode for her to see The error of her ways

and I kind of like that and that kind of leads

into bringing her master around Overall, it's

it's a good episode. I liked it but Come on where

the hell is Skeletor and his crew and it's like

what are they doing? Having a siesta at snake

mountain for five five to ten episodes already

I mean when is the last time in this podcast

that we've actually seen Skeletor saw him in

episode 48 With Monty and and whatnot so it's

been a few episodes and even before that then

he wasn't and a bunch of episodes before that,

so it was like, we didn't see him at all, he

appeared in that episode, and now we haven't

seen him at all. We didn't see him last week,

we're not seeing him this week's episodes, so,

yeah. Yeah. What about you, what do you think

of the plot? I mean, I like the idea, I like

the two characters that we're introduced to,

I like Lord and the Lord and Lady there. You

know, I thought it was a cool, like, set up as

far as, as far as... The setting and and You

know their castle slash tower or whatever was

pretty cool looking so I like all that And I

like the idea that they're kind of in this deep

sleep with their little pet and everything and

that something goes bad There's a few issues

I have with it, but overall overall I like the

plot. I thought it was a neat idea and cool some

cool characters The PSA wouldn't say it's a random

PSA but what other PSA are you gonna put in front

of this it would probably be He -Man saying the

same thing we've heard him say before you know

too much of a bad thing isn't good or too much

of a good thing is bad and blah blah blah blah

and so I don't know I kind of it kind of reminds

me of I don't remember watching this episode

as a kid but I remember seeing that PSA I don't

know if Orko's done that before Or he'll do that

later. I'm not sure but because let's face it

PSA's are recycled more than Aluminum cans are

just didn't make a lot of sense as far as we're

used to having them all be connected to the episode

and this one definitely did not connect to the

episode whatsoever Yeah Yeah, but overall I The

plot was, it was a really enjoyable episode to

watch, so let's head on over to Grey Skull and

see what kind of good moments we can find there.

Save my little pet! Well, maybe Valtera's not

as selfish as I thought. We have entered the

Hallowed Halls of Castle Grayskull. I'll let

you go first. What do you got for this one for

good moments? Basically, it all revolves around

the plot for me. I thought there were some good

moments as far as the creation of the plot, as

far as the introduction of the characters. Some

interesting sequences between Lady Valtera and

He -Man. they were trying to discover each other

and I liked the one moment when He -Man was like,

you know, before you were trying to capture me,

why are you, you know, what's going on now? You

haven't tried to do anything now. So there's

some interesting dynamics between the two of

them. But I didn't have like a lot of moments

that stood out for me. So I guess it's all you

for Castle Grayskull. As I said in the... the

plot finally an episode that the villainous learns

a lesson early I thought that was cool winged

horses put a horn on them and you got unicorns

oh wait I mean unicorns you silly bastard and

again Hordak is tyrant I wrote it as T -A -R

-O -N I thought it was Taron but whatever but

yeah George DeCenzo or however you say his name

The voice of Hordak was the voice of the Lord.

I enjoyed the episode. There were really no...

I'll have one what the freak moment, but really

there was no holy crap moments or anything like,

oh my God, this is the worst episode ever. This

might be one of the better episodes in a long

time that we've had. where it's good, but we

just don't have anything to gush about on it.

And as I said, I can't believe Tugbooth actually

wrote an episode I like. Yeah, it's surprising.

So let's go to Snake Mountain and wake up those

villains. Lady bastards. Quick! After him! You

shall not escape my wrath, ye man! Now you shall

feel the full power of Tyrande! Tyrande, no!

You will destroy us all! I command the power

to come forth! What have I done? Destroyed our

castle, my dear. Alright, we're in Snake Mountain.

I only have one thing. Why the hell would Tila

tell Adam to be quiet so not to spook the horses?

Yet when she throws the rope to him she yells

at him to lasso the damn horse They're crouched

down in the bushes or wherever and he's talking

in a loud voice and then she's all like Whispering

and and then five seconds later when she's throwing

the rope to him. He she's basically yelling across

the the planes I Had a couple things number one

number one. I thought the foreshadowing was a

little too obvious Like how forced it was and

how obvious it was that the Lord Tyrion like

even at one point Lady Valtryra is like that

voice sounds familiar like that was not necessary

I would have rather had a little more surprise

element than the obvious that's him the whole

time not that you couldn't tell since he was

missing from his little tomb and well the the

audience us as the audience could tell but apparently

the characters the show couldn't yeah so just

a little too much foreshadowing for me kind of

at the beginning just a minor detail but when

they're talking about the the reason for going

to sleep they're like we need to go to sleep

to let all the trees grow which is fine they

want their forest and everything to grow etc

but last I checked it doesn't take centuries

for for trees to grow I know it takes a while

But pretty sure they didn't need to go to sleep

for centuries. So I think they overshadowed a

little bit well, maybe they were living in a

time of That they lived so long and they got

their power from all these trees. Maybe they

had an entire war Because that's the other thing

Eternia is supposed to be this entire planet

Even though we only see maybe five or six Actual

locations Like we don't ever and I'm probably

putting my foot in my mouth here, but as of now

as of episode 52 We've never really gone around

the globe of a turn like like Here in on earth

where we're in the USA and then sometimes somebody

will go to Russia and vice versa So it's not

like we've seen the entire planet. So maybe they

were had a section of the forest that They used

up the power so much that it degraded the entire

forest that they were using. And it takes, I

don't know, two, three, 400 years. And I think,

I think in the episode it said they were asleep

for two years. So I, it's a while. I just, maybe

I'm not up on my tree growing. I don't know.

I have no knowledge of tree growing. I'm not

a lumberjack, so I don't know. I'm just guessing

from what I can barely remember of high school

science. And yet another item that He -Man has

packed in his jockstrap. I'd hate to say it,

but ladies that get with He -Man are going to

be disappointed because... Objects may appear

Anyway, I'm not gonna finish that statement,

but once you take everything out of his jackstrap,

I don't think there's much left But yeah, he

had a grappling hook in there so I Think it was

a grappling hook in this episode. So that's interesting.

That seems like it'd be uncomfortable But yeah,

those are the only moments I could really could

find a snake mountain other than the lack of

anyone currently residing in snake mountain Yeah

The place is empty. Alright, let's head on over

to the awards. It is time to give out the awards

and rankings. Do you have any power sword or

havoc steps that you are going to present? I

think you kind of said it best a little bit earlier.

This is an episode that's decent It's fun to

watch whatever but it just doesn't really have

horrible moments and it doesn't have great moments

for me So nothing really stands out one way or

the other. It was just kind of a right down the

middle type of episode. So I'm pretty neutral

on it. So I don't have any any awards or hardware

to give out this time around. I'm gonna give

a power sword to Lady Valtira because she was

a very fast learner and she would rather, you

know, she said herself, she'd rather have friends

than slaves. And you know, Taryn kind of came

around but not till the end. So, what are we

ranking this one? Like I said, it's fairly down

the middle, but I did like it, so I'm going to

give it a three and a half out of five. I'm gonna

give it a straight three out of five. I don't

know if I can explain it. There are times where

I'll say, oh, It was an episode that's just there

or the episode was was good. I liked it, but

there wasn't, you know, like you said, it wasn't

anything that kind of jumped out. But sometimes

when I say, oh, the episode is just there, I

mean it in a negative way. And that's not the

case here. I mean, it was a good episode. It

was a good story. They're just like. It wasn't

like one of the first episodes of season one

where like that first time that he man. Commands

the jaw bridge to open, you know, that's a gut

-wrenching moment for me because I remember that

as a child You know watching the show as a child,

but here There's nothing super exciting about

this it's good But it's not one of those episodes

that's gonna keep you on the edge of your seat

No, that's for sure. These are this episode is

that standard? Oh my god, we've been evil for

so many centuries and we've, you know, we chose

the dark side of the Force and it's taken us

to become old people, to realize, someone to

realize that there's good in us. Yeah, so let's

move on to the next episode. That looks like

a good place to leave it. This thing must be

worth a hundred fortunes. Why not keep it? Because,

you hairy fool! Skeletor says the griffon will

destroy everything in its path to get this jewel

back! Up next is Return of the Gryphon. Take

it away, Blot Man. Return of the Gryphon, episode

53, is written by David Wise. who has also been

behind Tila's trial, The Search, Eye of the Beholder,

and Trouble in Arcadia. Return of the Gryphon

aired Wednesday, November 16th, 1983, and the

plot goes something like this. Trapjohn, Beastman,

take the Jewel of Protection from the Shrine

of the Gryphon and place it in the grounds at

the Royal Palace. According to legend, the Gryphon

will destroy everything in its path in order

to get the jewel. To add, a page boy discovers

the jewel and soon people start paying more attention

to him, just as the Gryphon begins attacking

all of Eternia. When the heroes realize that

the Gryphon seeks the jewel, that is reluctant

to give it up, as the prestige of owning it is

more important to him than anything. But what

secret does the jewel hold within that would

make the Gryphon act so irrationally? We have

a brief appearance by Trap -John Beastman, otherwise

Evil Warriors are absent yet again. Masters,

you know, we just basically have He -Man, Tila,

et cetera. And the PSA is about facing your responsibilities

and becoming a man by doing so. As far as the

plot goes, I mean... I don't mind that there's

this beast and there's this thing that keeps

him tame and you know, you mess with it. He gets

all angry and pissed off and whatnot. There's

minor plot points that I don't know if I can

handle. Well, it's kind of getting into my snake

mountain moments a tiny bit. But but yeah, there's

there's some execution that like if you're just

looking at the basic plot that there's a monster

and like a jewel that keeps him at bay and the

jewel if something happens to it, he's gonna

go crazy and that happens and he's going crazy

and they have to figure out a way to calm him

down. That part of the plot is absolutely fine.

Like just on on that level. And if you break

it down just to that, that is fine. however in

executing that plot idea they went off the deep

end so decent premise terrible execution how

about you predictable premise and terrible execution

i didn't know what the hell when i first started

watching this episode what the hell i was getting

out of it Because there's this whole it's a jewel.

It's a jewel and of course as we all know Children

are their parents jewels. Oh my god When it got

to that moment in the plot of oh, it's it's the

Gryphon's egg. I'm like Move on can we get to

the return of Granomere already? Oh God Like

I said, it's fine and on its premise just the

fact that, you know, you have a beast and you

have something that's keeping it calm. It gets

disrupted. We got to figure out a way to get

it calm again. That's fine. Okay, okay, let me

ask you this. This has nothing to do with what

we'll get into in Snake Mountain and Grayskull

and all that stuff. It has to do with the plot,

okay? If this creature, and I know they kind

of want to keep this plot device a mystery till

the end about it being its egg, if this creature

has an egg, why is it in a fucking village and

not with the creature that's what i don't understand

about the plot makes no like if the creature

had its nest right there in that building or

in that area and the people built the city around

it fine but the egg is in one place the creature

is over somewhere in some mountain living like

a fucking grinch i don't get that about the plot

at all Makes no sense whatsoever. Yeah So so

I know I agree at that point but Yeah, there's

a lot of issues so we could Or we could just

skip grace gonna go to snake For all we know

the legend of the grife on is just a fairy tale

No! Two hundred years ago, the Gryphon came to

this place and put the jewel in our care! We

have failed in our task. Now that it is stolen,

the Gryphon will come once more to destroy us!

But that's just a myth. It's not real. Alright,

we have entered Castle Grayskull, but only halfway,

because I only have three things on here. I like

when Beastman and Trapjaw work together. But

there's, like, it's half of a second. I wrote

down here, ha ha ha, frozen yogurt, anyone? Was

there a frozen yogurt joke somewhere in there?

I don't remember. This episode was so bad, I

don't even remember why I wrote down one of my

own notes. What I did like about this was it

was interesting. There were a couple of times,

it might have only happened once, and I noticed

this stuff all the time, because they never Filmation

was all about stock animation, yet there are

numerous times, at least, that I've noticed that

one of the characters, or multiple of the characters,

will run through a transition. I liked and I

thought it was awesome that He -Man ran through

a couple of the transitions in this episode.

Alright, what do you got? Anything for Grayskull?

Nope. Nope? Alright, we're moving on to Snake

Mountain. Wow, that was quick. Well, be saying

you! Chew! You're gonna make me into somebody

important around here. Ah, see? Who dares enter

Snake Mountain, see? Um... Oh, God. What is it

with this series and kids? I know it's supposed

to be a kid cartoon, but God, the kid characters

that they put in this show suck. Every single

one of them. I have not liked any of them so

far. And this kid, Thad or Chad or whatever the

s - friggin kid is named uh... no one notices

finds the jewel and instead of asking someone

about it he'll keep it until disaster happens

he if he is if he has lived in this fricking

village all his young life and people have told

him don't touch this don't touch this don't touch

this and something happens to it because of beastman

and trap jaw and they get caught and they get

They fly away or they go off -screen and he says

oh, I'm going to keep this for myself because

then people will like me. Oh I've got to be friggin

kidding me with this plot. Oh god During the

paddle why is it that he man is running away?

It's oh, that's just a This is just a simple

animation error. It shows him with his sword

drawn. And then it shows it being in the scabbard.

So that's just an animation error. This kid needs

to be backhanded even worse than Adam's cousins.

This kid was so friggin' annoying. Put this kid

and cousin Jeremy, the other kid that was in

one of the other episodes, I'd take this kid

over cousin Jeremy any day. And it was... As

I said before, this episode is too damn predictable.

It really, really is. So, what do you have? Well,

let's start with the beginning with Trap John

Beast Man. First of all, well, what are they

doing in this episode? They seem out of place,

but okay, I get it. You're gonna take this jewel,

you're gonna hide it at the Royal Palace so that

the Gryphon destroys the Royal Palace, because

apparently it can sense... it's general vicinity

of the jewel but not exactly where it's at. My

problem is they go to all the trouble of grabbing

it etc etc and then they just haphazardly just

hide it behind a bush. I think they could have

got a little better hiding spot or like dug a

hole or something because you don't want anybody

to be able to find it. So that was kind of weird.

Let's just start with some basic things then.

Gryphon, the design on that character, monster,

whatever you want to call it, is awful. Yeah

it is. That looks like somebody not very talented

drew that. The whole lion heading on the dragon

thing was just not done in a good way at all.

Thad's voice. Yes. That is perhaps the worst

one of the worst voices we've seen so far in

53 episodes or heard excuse me. It's so terrible

Especially when that is talking to herself. I

mean Tila Because at one point they have an exchange

and there's like a line that that says followed

directly by a line that Tila says and Linda Gary

does not change voices in between those two lines

Oh, Linda Gary was dead. Or whoever it was. It

might have been it might have been Lou Shimer's

daughter or somebody I haven't looked that up.

But but whoever that was, they didn't change

their voice in between those two lines. So basically,

it sounded directly like the same person was

saying both lines, which was just bad. And yeah,

it was Linda Gary. Well, I don't know Linda Gary's

accredited as Thad Erica Shimer is accredited

as the royal page, which is the same character

So it might have been his daughter, but whoever

it was they just don't change their voice and

it ends up being an awful moment so that was

no good and The rest of my problems with this

episode has to do with human Okay He -Man is

just willy -nilly destroying nature for absolutely

no reason in this episode. At one point, he completely

destroys a mountain cliff so that the lake on

top of the mountain will just hit the griffon,

and apparently that's going to stop the griffon,

who basically just shakes off the water and then

is fine. So there was no point in doing that.

He just completely destroyed some of nature's

landscape there. to momentarily give the griffon

a shower and then later on he does something

similar but this time that little lake turns

into like an ocean and there's just water everywhere

and i don't know where it's coming from but why

is he man so willing to just completely destroy

nature throughout this episode i have no idea

i just thought that was very much out of character.

People have problems with Superman doing stuff

out of his character, He -Man's doing stuff out

of his character big time in this episode. So

yeah, the design on Gryphon's terrible, the voice

on Thad is terrible, the actions of He -Man are

terrible, this episode is terrible. There's just

not much good about this episode at all. And

I don't know, you talk about the other cousins

and the other kids, this one for me is by far

probably one of the most... Dislikeable annoying

characters as far as the kids go that I've seen

I completely agree All right, let's um get to

the Havoc staff presentations after this no,

she's not why By whom We'd better ready the attack

track wait that freeze ray of yours might be

helpful you stay here and finish working on it

i'll handle this as healing by the power of gray

skull all right let's give out some havoc staffs

easily the kid easily you can just go ahead and

beat him with two of them yeah Beat him with

two sticks. And the sad thing is... How does

David Wise write a bad episode? That's the saddest

thing of all about this episode, that it's David

Wise as a writer. This is clearly one that he

wasn't just doing to do and he didn't really

care about. Apparently so. It's not his best

effort. No, not another reason that gets a havoc

staff is because come on that just doesn't make

sense if you're a kid and you want attention

Whatever fine you find the jewel whatever but

as soon as you see that it's actually causing

danger You're gonna immediately go run to human

or man -at -arms or King randor and be like look.

Yeah here it is I Just thought it was cool. I

didn't realize it was something here. Do do whatever

you need to do with it. It's right here So yeah,

that would just I don't see I don't picture a

kid doing that They're not gonna be like, oh,

you know screw the screw the royal pals that

can get destroyed. I just want my jewel You're

not gonna do that Not any sensible kid. Yeah

I'm scared to ask but ratings I'll give it a

one I'm not gonna give it a complete zero because

it could have been a decent episode based on

the Slimmest version of the plot that you can

come to but no one one battle cat With with the

plot that we got versus the plot it could have

been new zero no orcos no battle cats. No cringers

No, nothing if I could give it a quadruple zero

I would This is gonna go down. It's one of the

worst episodes of the series. It will yes, so

let's Cleanse ourselves from that nonsense. Yes

Sure was quick get your sword. I'll teach it

to you if I haven't tired you out not yet It's

Zoar. The sorceress wants to see us. Then I guess

practice is over. Sorceress, we're here. Welcome,

Prince Adam. I have a message for you. Or rather,

for He -Man. A message? From whom? I think you'll

remember him. Granamere, sorceress, tell He -Man

that I wish to speak with him in Dark Smoke as

soon as possible. So that's the dragon who helped

save me from Skeletor's evil spell. Oh, he's

something. There's not another like him, but

I wonder why he wants to see He -Man. I don't

know, but an invitation from the oldest and wisest

of the Dragons of Dark Smoke is a great honor.

Then I better get moving. By the power of Grayskull!

I am the power! Finally of today, the return

of Granomere. Take it away, flat man. Alright,

hopefully the return of Granomere will not be

as bad as the return of the Gryphon. Episode

54, the return of Granomere. Air date is Thursday,

November 17th, 1983, and the writer here is Larry

DiTilio. who we've seen with the Time Corridor,

the Dragon's Gift, the Cosmic Comet, City Beneath

the Sea, and Orko's Missing Magic. So up to this

point, the sixth episode from Larry DiTillio.

The plot. After receiving a call to Castle Grayskull,

He -Man and Madden Arms fly to Darksmoke and

meet with Granamere. He informs them that Torm,

the youngest dragon in Dragonsmoke, wishes to

marry a human, but the bride's father demands

a test. Dragon regulations restrict Torm from

being tested, so He -Man is chosen to be Torm's

champion. Zem, a jealous wizard, wishes Lyra

to be his bride and plans to prevent He -Man

from taking part in the test. Can He -Man pass

the many tests that lie within a maze and overcome

the hatred of Zen to appease Granamir? Evil warriors?

Guess what? We don't see any of them. But I don't

mind it. I understand. It's the sixth episode

in a row without Skeletor. I know, but because

this is a Granamir episode, I don't mind that

Skeletor is not present here. As far as the Masters

go, we have Man at Arms and Prince Adam slash

He -Man and a brief shot of the Sorceress, I

guess. And we do see King Randor in the PSA talking

about avoiding fighting as your way to solve

problems. As far as a plot goes The last one

had a pretty simplistic plot structure that was

just done terribly this one has a pretty convoluted

complex Weird plot as far as the surface goes

if you're just taking it at surface value you

got You got a dragon who has a little dragon

who wants to marry a human who can't because

the human's father wants a test done, but you

can't have the dragon test because dragons don't

do that. So the dragon has to pick a human to

do the test in order for the dragon to marry

the human. But if that happens and the dragon

becomes a human and loses his dragon abilities

and his ability to live for hundreds or thousands

of years or whatever, et cetera, et cetera. Just

on the surface and then you gotta get to throw

in an evil jealous wizard who really wants to

marry the human instead So he's gonna try to

muck things up. So it seems like there's no possible

way that this is gonna be done. Well Because

there's just a whole bunch of weird nonsense

going on Flash forward to 1992 and poof you got

Aladdin. No, but yes Not at all, but uh, but

so but yeah, it just seems like a very weird

very convoluted plot that can't possibly be done

right, but we'll get to if it is or if it's not

later. Just taking all that, what was your initial

reaction if that was what you read and you hadn't

seen anything? If I had just read that, it does

sound very convoluted, but watching the episode,

I thought the plot, it flowed fairly easily.

you know the story is convoluted but it's convoluted

to the point of I don't know if being convoluted

can be good or bad we know it can be bad but

sometimes having an intricate story versus having

a convoluted story is a little bit more interesting

and it's like okay he -man has to go do this

this this and this this in order to get this

done or because of you know because of the dragons

don't Accept challenges, which is that's really

the lamest thing. Okay, sure I get it I get it's

a baby dragon and you know, you're not gonna

put your kid out there in a you know course of

fire and ice Minotaurs and whatever the hell

else but you know, it's one of those things where

I didn't mind it. I really didn't mind the plot.

I mean now that you say it that way I can kind

of see it, but I still see it as story point

a b c d e and It just kind of now if they had

to go back and forth back and forth More than

what they did. I could probably see it as convoluted,

but I really enjoyed this one all right, okay,

so The PSA. My dislike of this PSA has nothing

to do with the actual message. It's a very good

message and it's something everyone should listen

to. My problem was with the animation on the

PSA. You have Randor and instead of having Randor

and He -Man in the same shot, like sometimes

we'll have Man in Arms and Orko or He -Man and

Man in Arms and vice versa and all that other

stuff, you have Randor. This I think this is

the first time ever he's done a PSA. I could

be wrong. I don't know. We're 50 something episodes

into this show out of 130. I've seen a lot of

He -Man in the last two or three years. Or however

long this show's been going on. But yeah, you've

got Randor. He starts it off. He makes a message.

It then transitions to He -Man who looks like

he's in a completely... It doesn't look like

he's standing next to Randor. It's a different...

It's kind of like if you and I were looking at

each other and the camera was focused on you

and then instead of panning around to me, that

there was a complete cut jump, jump cut, and

there was another camera behind you looking at

me. So it was a really, really weird animation

transition. I know that's a huge, huge nitpick,

but it was... She was just strange and weird,

but I didn't really care for it. So let's get

to Grayskull. Incredible. Come on. Welcome here.

By the ancients I thank you for accepting my

invitation But I did not invite you This is my

friend man -at -arms the one you saved when we

first met he wanted to thank you in person Poor

excuse for bad manners, but I didn't mean to

be rude. Please accept my apology and my thanks

At least you speak with respect I wouldn't speak

any other way to one as grand as you. You show

good sense for a human. You may stay. Thank you

again. And now, the reason for my invitation.

Tom! Well, come on, come on, this is the one

we've been waiting for. My champion? Champion?

This is Tor, the youngest dragon of Dark Smoke.

He is in love with a female of your kind. Her

name is Lyra. She is the loveliest and sweetest

being I have ever known. She is small and foolish

like all humans, but love blinds even dragons

at times. Now that we have entered the... Calls

of Castle Grayskull and receive Grand Mayor's

message. For me, for good moments, yay, a Grand

Mayor app. I don't know what it is with my correlation

to this episode to Disney films, but one of my

know why. Shadowwing, I like that name. Even

though it's a bad guy, I like that name. I've

been over I don't have a lot of good moments

here. I mean, I really enjoyed the episode but

I Thought it was a very interesting but then

again Granamere's appearances always are because

I don't know how many Times we actually see him

in the series. I know we've seen him twice so

far dragons gift in this we're not done No, I

know but I'm just saying we'll see him again.

Yeah. Yeah What I like about Granamere's episodes

is that They're using that character very sparingly

and for you know as much as this episode might

be convoluted It was overall a really good episode

as far as a great a mirror episode goes So and

I know Larry to tell you loves dragons and all

that mythology stuff. So there you go What about

you? What'd you like about this one? I thought

it was a great intro into the plot It's great

way. They got set up with how Grand Amir called

to them basically. They went to Castle Grayskull

and basically got summoned there. So I like how

the whole... episode began. I like the continuity

between the two meetings so far of Gran Amir,

especially with Man in Arms recalling that Gran

Amir saved him even though he didn't get to meet

him personally and that he was trying to go there

to say thank you, etc. So that showed a lot of

continuity between this episode and the first

appearance of Gran Amir, which sometimes in these

series will have like the return of a certain

character or you know so -and -so comes back

or whatever and they really don't... had all

acknowledged the first episode that the character

was in. So I like that they did that with this

one. Another thing I like about Granamir is the

way they've depicted him so far and they've been

really good at doing it in both appearances is

basically his power outdoes even He -Man's. Oh,

yeah, you know, we don't we never come across

anything that can overpower human or anything

that human can't you know beat physically etc,

but we just get the idea that in the grand mirror

is is Kind of the most powerful being that we've

come across in this entire series So far, yeah,

so that's kind of cool I like that we had a nice

little setup there with like the mythological

challenge and almost came across to me as human

taking the part of you know, you could say like

Odysseus in the Odyssey as far as having overcome

certain things, or Hercules and the different

things that he has to do. So it's like this mythological

challenge that he's going to get sent through

that has to beat different things. I like how

that kind of was set up. They didn't do a lot

with it, but I like how it was set up. I thought

you were going to say Hercules and his legendary

journeys. No. And then I like the line that Granamir

uses. That at some point he's referring to human

and says there are a few who do not know he meant

on Eternia So I just like moments like that word

where it calls out to the fact that he's well

-known even though he hasn't met everybody people

know of him So that's cool. I thought it was

a cool moment when they saw a man -at -arms sleeping

Human and a man -at -arms were both in a certain

room and it shows man -at -arms sleeping but

all his gears off and sitting like bedside And

there was a couple cool shots where it shows

all his gear off and stuff like that And then

you kind of get a little bit of a glimpse of

him without it on so that was kind of cool Just

kind of seeing the other side of when he's not

all geared up They had a cool full circle moment

where at the beginning man -at -arms and Prince

Adam are doing sword maneuvers and Man -at -arms

does a trick there to get the sword out of out

of Prince Adam's hands And then at the end of

the episode He -Man used that same trick to get

the staff out of Zem's hands. So I thought that

was pretty cool. I'm not huge into dragons or

whatnot, but that was a pretty cool battle between

Shadowwing and Granamir. Even though I was short

-lived, it was kind of cool for a moment as they

were going back and forth. And then, always,

as he does, it was epic how Greenamere descends

down the hole or the pit there at the end of

the episode. The pit, yeah. So, a lot to like

about this episode, a whole lot. Yeah. Are we

making a trip to Snake Mountain at all? I mean,

it's not necessary for me. Me either, so we're

gonna jump straight towards... I've got to stop

that evil dragon All right, it's time for the

awards and rankings for me power swords for everybody

Everybody everybody that was on screen Because

thankfully Tila was nowhere near this episode

What about you? I'm gonna give a power sword

to both Granamir and He -Man. I think Granamir

is just an epic character so he gets one just

for that factor, but I think he brings the best

out of He -Man and they have some interesting

play among each other. He -Man dealing with someone

of his power, someone that you have to treat

in a certain way or else you piss him off. So

I thought both of them were good. I thought He

-Man was good going through the maze and doing

everything. So both Granamir and He -Man power

sword. And something we didn't mention in the

Granamir section of this episode. I won't fight

you, but we can have a tug of war. It's like

we're at summer camp all over again. Same for

me. Like I said, power switch for everybody.

As far as ratings, I'm going to give it a 5 out

of 5. A 5? That's a hell of a ground there. Yeah,

five more shows out of five because it was a

damn good episode that I didn't find any single

nitpick I didn't find any oh my god. This series

sucks moments I didn't find anything with with

with grantamere at all that's the most impressive

thing because if you're gonna find a nitpick

you would be in the convoluted premise of the

plot, but But the thing is even with that convoluted

weird complex intricate weird sounding this could

never work plot i guess it turns into a good

thing because they completely pull it off and

make it where you don't even think about how

weird this plot is because it all just kind of

flows and works together even though if you were

to break it down you'd say certain things don't

make sense but but they really don't make you

think of that because it just goes together so

well and see i didn't even think of the plot

in that aspect until you pointed it out. That's

what I'm here for. Yeah, jerk. So anyways, you

gave it a Hello Ground five Orcos out of five,

and I will give it five Battle Cats out of five.

All right. We're in agreement for once. We should

stop the show. We already did stop the show for

like six months. Yeah. That's because we had

to wait for all these returns return of the great

fun return of Gran Amir return of tree L We're

just waiting for the return of Skeletor now and

we'll be all set Yeah, we did not have to wait

for the return of Gryphon at all Alright, so

we're gonna head to PSA and add land and we'll

be back with final thoughts and thoughts on the

story so far and Etc etc etc after this Today

we met some people who had slept for over 200

years. Well, we don't eat that much sleep, but

it is important to get enough sleep. So, here

are some things to remember. Don't eat a lot

before going to bed. A glass of milk or a piece

of fruit makes a good bedtime snack. Try to go

to bed at the same time every night, and avoid

any exercise or excitement before going to bed.

Well, good night! Good night, Gringer! Are you

looking for a weekly dose of gaming news and

retro? Then check out Off the Cuff, available

Fridays on GeekCast Radio Network from the producers

of XRG. New name, same s***. Well, I give up.

The most wonderful moment was when Thad realized

he must face his own responsibilities. In that

one tiny second, I saw a boy grow into a man.

Is this thing on? Oh, goody. Why, hello there.

It's your deviled Uncle Joker here. I bet you're

asking yourself, what could I be possibly doing

here? places well i'm laughing at the fact that

this new podcast presented by key cast radio

is called legends of the dark knight who the

heck knew the bat was so popular join steve mike

in sometimes tower for reviews on the greatest

dc animated universe cartoon to ever meet gotham

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I'll send Captain Clown after you He gets mighty

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skull So put on a nice big smile And join us

for the next Geekcast Radio Network Popcast Legends

of the Dark Knight Helping his dragon friend

sure kept He -Man busy today, and Brindle's tests

were pretty tough. In one of those tests, prove

his courage, he was challenged to a fight. But

He -Man wouldn't fight. The fact is, fighting

never proves anything. Trying to find a peaceful

way to settle a problem is usually the best way.

And if someone calls you a coward or a chicken,

don't let it worry you. It often takes more courage

not to fight. Until later, bye now. Transformers!

Transformers! Generation 2! Wrong. This is not

Generation 2. This is Generation 1 done right.

The year will be 2014, and from secret staging

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podcasters prepare to reclaim their reputations.

September 17th, 2014, the TFG2 Podcast premieres

45 podcast episodes dedicated to all 98 episodes

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than meets the ear. Join TFG1 Mike, Pecan Court

Michael, Optimus Solo, and sometimes Steve Megatron

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can find the TFG2 Podcast on www .geekcastradio

.com and iTunes. thoughts on the story so far

sir? I mean what we've got in the last couple

weeks here is a healthy dose of return of characters

or plots that are so it's labeled return. We've

seen Driel come back, we've seen Granamir come

back. etc. So for me I don't mind the fact that

we're seeing some continuity there and some return

of characters. You know, so not all characters

are just these one -off things and then we get

to actually see a couple of them multiple times.

That's cool. Especially when they acknowledge

it and build off of it. So I don't mind that

at all. And if you're gonna have an episode that

doesn't have some of the main characters and

it's good to have like a Grand Amir or somebody

that strong. So I don't mind that. But it seems

as we're getting... Closer and closer towards

the end of season one that That the writing team

here and that the series has completely abandoned

the evil warriors Like we've mentioned in the

episode it's been six episodes now without Skeletor

And that is a bit weird to me You know if you

think about like a series like Transformers for

example I'm just throwing that out there because

everybody always thinks we know everything about

Transformers Megatron is in Megatron and Optimus

Prime are both together in about 90 98 % of the

episodes 99 % of the episodes like Megatron is

almost always in the episode with very few exceptions

it I was some surprise so far to see how many

episodes Skeletor is not in You know, that's

what that's one of the things I'm sorry to cut

you off But that's one of the things we should

do for when we do the season one wrap -up is

do a count. Oh no I'm just saying do a count

of how many episodes out of the 65 That Skeletor

and none of his evil warriors are in. And I'm

not saying he needs to be in every episode because

a lot of times I like it when... I don't like

a series when the main bad guy is in 100 % of

the episodes. Right. Because then you're wanting

to see, well, how do these people react to just

some other villain or some other catastrophe

or whatever. So I'm not saying he needs to be

in all the episodes but it's weird for them to

go this long of a stretch without him and I need

to see a little bit more of him before the end

of season one. I'm hoping, you know... That that

we don't limp into the end of season one and

that we have some more strong episodes like three

turn of Granamere This week. Yeah, obviously

return of Gryphon was a god -awful episode But

the other two episodes weren't that bad and return

of Granamere is one of the best episodes we've

seen So hopefully we can ride that momentum into

these final, you know Whatever eight episodes

that remain in season one the 65 is 10 11 actually

there's 11 episodes left so hopefully we can

ride the momentum into those last 11 and enjoy

that and hopefully it's not something where we

limp limp across the finish line and find out

that Skeletor was just on an extended vacation

well I do know we will keep the streak going

with the first episode next time around because

as far as I can tell Skeletor is not in that

either For me, I agree with you about the continuity

bits. I like that Driel returned. I like the

consistency of her and Orko's budding relationship.

If you think about it, that was probably one

of the first long -distance relationships in

media, at least in the 80s. Granamir always coming

back is a great thing. Yeah, I want to see more

evil warriors. I would have rather trap jaw You

know and beast man stick around versus having

the griffon do anything. Yeah, I could see that

Other thoughts as to where we're at overall with

11 episodes left in season one Like you said

you warriors got to show up for sure they really

really do Thank you for listening to Tales of

Eternia. If you'd like to get in contact with

us, we'll leave feedback for the show. There

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502 -566 -521, and yes, Skeletor does answer

that line sometimes. We hope you enjoyed the

tales today, and don't forget to join us on our

next adventure when we will be discussing episodes

55, 56, and 57, which are, Hawns of the Game

Master, The Huntsman, and The Remedy. Jason Mraz

was too young by then, or back then. For now,

I am TFT1Mike with... Akuma Solo, the man of

no references. That's right. Because he's a non

-geek. By the powers of Grayskull, you all have

the power. We will catch you next time.