Journey to Stone City, A Bird in the Hand, Battle Cat

What do we have here? It's Castle Grayskull!

And it's mine! Not so fast, Beastman! He -Man!

You can pit He -Man against Beastman, playing

for the power of Castle Grayskull. You have to

put the castle together. Beastman's escaping!

The throne, Dad! Dad, you saved the castle! Castle

Grayskull, from the Masters of the Universe collection.

He -Man and Beastman, each sold separately. From

Mattel. 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! 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 Optimus

Solo and welcome to the 33rd chapter. in Tales

of Eternia with me for this journey into the

Masters of the Universe franchise. You would

never guess, but it's TFG1 Mike. Hello? Hello.

You sound thrilled to be here. Oh, God. Well,

are you at least ready to talk some powers of

Grayskull? I guess. Get your mind off of everything

else. It's not going to help. It's not going

to help. Alright, well in this episode of Tales

of Eternia, we will be giving you our thoughts

on episode 96, Journey to Stone City, episode

97, A Bird in the Hand, and episode 98, Battle

Cat. So we hope you're ready, because it's time

to go back to Eternia. At least the living conditions

are better there. Well, man -in -arms, now which

way do we go? Man, it's hard to tell. The map

is so old, it's fallen apart in places. It's

nearly impossible to tell which way is the right

way. Near as I can see, Stone City should be

that way. I'm not so sure, man -in -arms. It's

all in how you look at it. Now, if you look at

it this way, the map points that way. And what

does your computer brain say, Trek? Well, what

are you asking him for? He never agrees with

me. He always says I'm wrong. Readings indicate

that Orko is probably correct. You said I'm right?

Yes. No one can be wrong all the time. Not even

you. The odds are that you have to be right sometime.

Why not this time? Great! Even when I'm right,

I'm wrong. And the only reason I'm right is because

I'm wrong, and if I'm wrong, it's because he's

right about... Arko has been out in the jungle

too long. We all have, Adam. Three days and still

no sight of the ancient ruins of Stone City.

Perhaps we should head back and try again some

other time. Well, I guess you're right. No, we'll

tell Arko. Alright, we start today with episode

96, Journey to Stone City, written by J. Michael

Straczynski. This one would have had an air date

of Tuesday, October 23rd, 1984, and the plot

finds Evil Lin awakening an ancient warrior and

tricking him into attacking Castle Grayskull

in order to save his people. For the masters

we have basically He -Man, Man -at -Arms, Oracle,

and Sorceress, and for the evil warriors we see

Evil Lin, Skeletor, Webster, and Cobra Khan.

The PSA is talking to a man at arms who is trying

to tell Orko that dinner is ready. Orko doesn't

listen because he's too busy explaining why it's

important to listen to what others have to say

and hear their side of the story. I'm sorry,

the PSA was just... It's an interesting lesson,

but it was a dumb execution. Yeah, it's trying

to be clever. It didn't work. Yeah. Orko's fun

facts according to Andy Mangels here this episode

is possibly one of the best appearances of the

attack track with witty dialogue penned by Jamie

Michael Straczynski Notice on the map that orko

discovers. There is the large human cross It

seems when Prince Adam transforms in a human

that attack track may be privy to his secret

identity I don't know if I saw that or Or thought

that, I don't know if that's maybe somebody reading

into it a little bit too much, but maybe you

thought that, I don't know. Track is a computer.

He is a machine. He is not a person. It's friggin'

T -Bob all over again. Oh, God. And the symbol

on Volkan's chest is called the Eye of Amagordo.

I don't know why that's a fun fact, because he

says it in the episode. Anyways, we have evil

and kind of going off on our own in this episode

trying to do her thing in steel power. Obviously

we've seen similar things to that, but this way

she's trying to do it through these ancient warriors

who then she will use to get into Castle Grayskull,

which is not something we've really seen too

much of. Maybe a couple times, but we haven't

seen, you know, obviously Skeletor and the evil

warriors are always trying to get into Castle

Grayskull, but we haven't seen a ton of times

where they've used another force or an outside

entity to try to do it for them. What did you

think of this episode? I liked it, it was interesting.

There have been a number of times where Skeletor

has tried to use outside forces, hardly any in

Season 2, since apparently Season 2 has nothing

to do with the evil warriors half the time. Guarantee

you if we did the math on this 90 % of season

2 is all one -off episodes and the other 10 is

Skeletor and the evil warriors it just Season

2 is by far to this point. There are like a few

gems here and there for me, but it's by far the

worst out of the two seasons I'll wait and reserve

judgment. We have about What for 30 40 episodes

left? Yeah, so I won't judge it. They don't improve.

I think I think the evil warriors have appeared

more times than you're giving them credit for

But what did you think about this plot as far

as evil in being the one leading the charge?

It makes sense. I mean, it goes along with what

we've seen so far. I mean, she's always said

that she's going to plot against Skeletor and

get the power for herself and et cetera, et cetera.

So it's not like they're writing against type.

And again, Strazinski was instrumental in a lot

of the earlier episodes. I mean, he's written

a lot of them, I think. It seems like he's one

of very few. writers because it seems like there

was a dividing point between season one and season

two for sure like they had certain writers on

tap for season one you know then there's probably

a break in time between then and and and the

production of season two possibly I'm guessing

and it seems like there was a big turnover where

we're not getting a lot of the same writers that

we had over and over again in season one Jane

Michael Trudinsky I guess is the exception to

that rule because he seems to be one of the few

people that are pending quite a handful of episodes

in both seasons. We'll have to wait and see once

it's all done, how the writers break down, but

it definitely seems like he's one of the longer

tenured writers of this show. Absolutely. Alright,

well we will see what exactly we have to say

and I don't think either one of us has revealed

our hand too much on if we liked the episode

or not and to what extent so let's get to Castle

Grayskull and see who liked it more. Alright,

for the first time today, we're at Castle Grayskull

to see who liked Journey to Stone City more.

I will let you go first with your Castle Grayskull

moments. The conversation between Orko and Trak

is just awesome. Yeah. And when they're talking

about, um, oh God, what the hell was it? I just,

their banter back and forth was just great. Um,

Web Store actually got a a good line in about

all about con always lying down on the job yeah

exactly um... Skeletor for what little time he

has in the episode is pretty awesome that is

a understatement oh yeah and then apparently

taking out uh... talking out your problems is

better than fighting that's true but it uh...

That probably should have been in my snake mountain

moments. I agree with it, but it's just one of

those things where it felt like it was really

heavy handed for me. But what about you? All

right, you might want to buckle your seatbelt

for this one or get yourself a nice cool beverage

and Kick back and relax as I talk about some

Castle Grayskull moments from Journey to Stone

City First of all agree great dialogue with orgo

specifically. I like the part of the beginning

where he's going on this little tirade about

being right and being wrong and He's right to

be wrong or wrong to be right or something I'd

have to re -listen to it, but I found it very

clever when I was watching the episode. As far

as the actual writing of that dialogue, to make

it so it made sense and wasn't just like a tongue

twister. But yeah, I thought the dialogue was

really good by J. Michael Straczynski in this

episode throughout, specifically here with Orko.

I was somewhat confused at the beginning as to

why the motivation behind the master's searching

for Stone City. And they rectified that. And

I thought it was a good use of Evil Lynn to explain

why we're in the setting we're in, why Stone

City is of interest. Because at first it's just

like, what are they doing? Why are they out here?

What's going on? I'm confused. But then they

tie it right into Evil Lynn kind of explaining

it to Webster and Cobra Khan, why they're out

there and what they're looking for. So then I

was with them. And as a kid, you'd then be able

to follow for the rest of the episode. I thought

it was a new and clever way for the sword to

not be of use. We've seen it in the hands of

somebody else. You know, we've seen it away from

Adam multiple times. I don't know if we've ever

seen it half under a rock and half visible, where

you just can't literally because you're Adam's

you're not strong. So you just can't pull it

out. So I was like, oh, that's clever. We haven't,

you know, this is episode 96. I haven't seen

that yet. Anytime, anytime you're at episode

90 something and you come across something you

haven't seen before, that's usually a good thing.

I also liked the effects that they use. At one

point Prince Adam is talking to Attack Track.

Obviously we mentioned that Attack Track has

quite a few... You know lines throughout this

episode But at one point Adam was talking to

him and instead of just having like the sound

of Adam and then the sound of attack track And

then you know just those voice tracks going back

and forth at one point they literally put an

effect on it, so it sounds like You're seeing

it from attack tracks angle, and it actually

sounds like Adams coming through a recorder Or

through a phone like the other end of a phone.

Well, yeah, it's it's supposed to be the the

other end of the radio They've done this a couple

of times but it's it's nice because it would

have been just as easy just to have the same

dialogue with no effect and Just just just have

to assume. Yeah, you know Adams talking to attack

track It's going back and forth, but then it

actually puts you in the scene there if you're

like, oh Adams not on the screen. So it's like

the synthesized Recorded voice which which makes

it more believable. Um, I thought it was interesting

I guess what I should have said at the beginning

was not just the evil warriors using somebody

to get into Castle Grayskull, but I thought it

was interesting to try to have someone good try

to break into Grayskull. This isn't a villain.

And so like Sorceress says, you know, Castle

Grayskull's part of its magic is defending against

evil. Right and combat an evil. So now we have

Vulcan who is a genuinely a good, you know Basically

a good person. Yeah, and so it's they can't really

defend against him because he is good So it's

it kind of sets up a cool little dilemma there

and I thought that was interesting I also thought

Evelyn got to show her smarts a little bit in

this episode for a portion of it, at least in

the first half of the episode. You got to see

a little bit more character as far as Evelyn

goes. A little bit more of her motivation and

a little bit more of her intelligence coming

out, so I thought that was cool. And then I have

about four Skeletor moments. It was hilarious

when he's like, oh, I was just like, this is

what I wrote down. I was like, oh, how nice for

Skeletor to check in on Evil N. Because he literally

is just walking through and he's like, I haven't

seen you today. I thought I'd check in on you.

It's like, oh, it's nice when you have your evil,

the head evil warrior who goes around Snake Mountain

checking on his minions to make sure they're

OK. I just found that whole moment humorous because

that's not something I would expect Skeletor

to be doing in his free time. And then, obviously,

Evil Lynn at this point, the Lifebringer has

been stolen from Vulcan. We didn't talk about

that in the plot, but Evil Lynn basically transports

this Lifebringer, which is... I should say that

for Snake Mountain, but that's a bad name for

that. But she has transported that to Snake Mountain

and Skeletor sees it. And he has some hilarious

lines as He -Man is out there like... destroying

Stake Mountain in an attempt to get this back.

At one point, he's like, I can see it. It's not

nothing. Because Evelyn's like, it's nothing.

He's like, I can see it. It's not nothing. And

then He -Man is asking for it, and he's like,

sorry, I haven't seen it. And then there's an

awesome quote there right after that. He's like,

I'm going to give it to He -Man because... He

wants it Skeletor is absolutely hilarious in

this episode Like one of his funniest episodes

ever I'm doing it terrible justice, but if you

go back and listen to the second half of this

Episode journey to stone city and just watch

for all the skeletor parts. He's freaking hilarious

all the way up through the end when they're doing

the sculpting when Eva Lynn and Is it web store?

It's either Webster or Kovacan and Evelyn are

sculpting Skeletor's face into the side of Snake

Mountain. And Skeletor is just sitting in the

chair watching them and kind of ragging on them

or whatever. I don't know. I thought that was

funny. You didn't think any of this was good,

did you? No, I did. I'm distracted because my

stupid -ass neighbors are being loud outside

in the hallway. I also did think it was a good

moral. I mean, I'm not saying necessarily that

PSA is fantastic, but I think it's a great moral

of the story. And then also, thank God He -Man

did not move the moon again. That literally was

the one thing that was going to ruin the episode

for me. And I was like, I am about to give this

episode a very good rating. And then I could

see this coming. I'm like, please tell me he's

not going to go up there and move the moon. with

twice within five episodes. So thank God he just

pushed the mountain over, which is a little bit

more believable, even if it still seems like

a pretty big task. But go ahead. Well, the. The

PSA is a good lesson. As I said, I just think

it was a really crappy execution. Right? No,

no, no. I'm just saying like a great moral for

the episode overall. Oh, yeah. No, I agree with

that. I just think the execution of it was all

wrong. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, Skeletor probably

takes the cake for Castle Grayskull moments because

his dialogue in this scene, in this whole thing,

his actions, just the way he's acting, how he

gives in to He -Man so easily, how, you know,

he's punishing evil and et cetera. He was just

funny throughout this whole thing. Just love

how he you mentioned earlier. I love how he asks.

Is that the the life bringer? It's like just

the way he asks the question. Yeah, like like

he doesn't That's how quickly he Flips from one

side to the other. Oh, this is a value. No, you

can't have it. Oh, you're breaking snake mountain.

Yeah, it's right here. It's like Oh my, Skeletor.

But just the fact, I can't get over the idea

of him just walking around Snake Mountain and

checking in on his evil minions like, how are

you doing, Evil Lin? I haven't seen you all day.

Well, it's like that age old thing where most

cartoon characters do this. Leo did it in the

five parter for the Turtles series in 87 where

he's like, it's... too quiet. It's quiet, a little

too quiet. It is the same thing here with Skeletor.

He kind of does that same kind of thing, obviously

in a different way, but he kind of does that

same kind of thing. And it is just so funny and

cool to see him actually doing it. I don't know

what my record is for Castle Grayskull moments,

but I think I haven't had 12 moments very often.

So sorry to keep everybody waiting, but a lot

of Grayskull moments for Journey to Stone City.

I enjoyed this episode immensely. On the flip

side, let's see what we have to say at Snake

Mountain. I intend to make the treasure of stone

city mine and just to make sure you don't interfere

with our plans. We are in the snake mountain

trying to be very quiet because Skeletor is making

the rounds and checking up on his evil warriors.

So we've got to be kind of discreet here. I only

have two snake mountain moments. First of all,

how exactly did he? How exactly did He -Man blow

those rocks up? It's one of those moments that

they've done multiple times in the series, but

it's like He -Man has the sword or whatever.

The sword is under the bricks or whatever and

Attack Track pushes it and eventually Adam pulls

it out, turns into He -Man and then it just like

goes to a far away shot of the stone blocks that

they're inside of and it's just like they just

blow up. Like what move does he do with the sword

where where everything just blows up in all directions?

Does he like store up the power and then just

like let it loose like some type of power up

or is it? It does he do it like a tornado spin

and just like hit them all with a sword I find

it very weird when stuff just blows up because

he has the sword Now if If this was the other

sword, which we will talk about later on in another

podcast if this was the other sword I was gonna

say he could just press the jewel. It's it's

a detonation switch And also I think I would

have preferred a different voice for Vulcan there

it just was too close to Man arms Is that the

person that was closed? Yeah, it was too close

to one of the characters and like even one of

the scenes where they're talking They're both

talking and you can't almost tell at one point

that they've switched from one character to another

I just think they could have maybe a little bit

more distinct voice for him, but that's all I

have. What about you? I only have one You kind

of already mentioned it not at snake mountain,

but earlier For a minute there. I was gonna have

like you have a huge problem with he man and

and I still kind of have a huge problem with

this he's gonna move the mountain I thought for

a minute there he was gonna move the moon again

but seriously he moves this mountain but they're

still in the village like we see the village

around this mountain so like it isn't like he

went five or ten feet outside of the village

or five miles outside of the village or whatever

it's like this somehow the Just mysteriously

there's this giant mountain inside this village

that he can move five feet to the left. He is

He -Man, the moon mover. Oh, the mountain mover,

excuse me. If he would have moved the moon both

times, then I would have renamed him He -Man,

the moon mover. But yeah, I can see that. Luckily

for me, because he didn't move the moon, it didn't

feel like it was as bad that he moved this ridiculous

mountain. I was more able to stomach it. Alright,

let's see who gets awards and how high we rate

this one as we get to our awards and rankings

section. Alright, let's see how we rate the first

episode of the day. Where do we start today?

But first, before we get to that point, we always

have to decide if anybody is worthy of having

a power sword presented to them, or... Maybe

having the Havoc staff knock them in the head

Michael let you go first any any hardware to

give out today? Sure Orko track and Skeletor

they're the winners we got a trifecta. Yeah All

right, fair enough I will agree with one of those

If you couldn't tell from my Castle Grey Skull

moments, I will give a epic power sword to I

guess I should give it to J. Michael Straczynski

because he's the one who wrote the dialogue,

but I will give it to Skeletor He this is one

of my favorite Skeletor episodes of the entire

series so far. I just thought he was absolutely

Hilarious so power sword to Skeletor I'll let

you go first on this one, too. What do you rate

Journey to Stone City? I Thought it was a really

interesting episode. There's just that one moment

that kind of it's like no So for me it gets four

to five orcos four out of five Orcos I will agree

and then slightly disagree I will give this one

a four and a half out of five it's just missing

really a disagreement i mean i mean i'm slightly

above you uh it it really is almost a perfect

episode there's just a couple little things that

bugged me here and there but overall i thought

this is a super enjoyable episode i think the

dialogue is excellent from orgo and attack track

through skeletor all the way down it's one of

the better episodes we've seen here in season

two so i will give it a four and a half So we're

starting off both positive. Let's see where we

go from here as we get to episode 97 next. I

have to finish my work first. I promised. Well,

then I'll help you. Stand by for some magic.

We'll have this done in no time at all. I command

you, little... Alright, next up is episode 97,

A Bird in the Hand, written by Phil Harnage.

Airdate of Wednesday, October 24th, 1984. Orko

and Stanlin discover a map leading to the Ancients'

Book of Spells, but Stanlin's fondness for one

of Beastman's creatures allows the heroes to

be followed by Skeletor. We have the regular

masters in here. For the evil warriors we have

Skeletor, Beastman, and Trapjaw. The PSA is Tila

and Hollywag talking about jumping to conclusions,

because obviously Malakla jumped to a lot of

conclusions about Stanlin. And as far as Orko's

fun facts in the script, Stanlin is excited about

meeting the Sorceress. That's odd, because the

Sorceress helped Stanlin fight the evil Shakoti

in House of Shakoti Part 2. So he has already

met her before. What do you think about the reoccurring

appearance of Stanlin and Malaktha and the appearance

of... the Holly wag and how that plays into the

search for this ancient book of spells. Um, I

think the episode is good. I think the only problem

I'm going to have with this entire episode is

Malakva. Um, we'll talk about that a little later,

but I want to take this time to focus on Mr.

Phil Harnage himself. because he has written

a lot of stuff. He has 52, no, 55 writing credits

on IMDB. The only two episodes of He -Man and

Masters he wrote was Freddy Cat and this one.

He will return when we get to the myths of Etheria

covering She -Ra Princess of Power. He wrote

a lesson in love. After those, he wrote for Alf

Tales, he wrote for The Legend of Zelda, he wrote

for Super Mario Bros. Super Show and other Mario

cartoons. He wrote The New Kids Off the Wall,

one of the episodes of New Kids on the Block

from 1990. He wrote a couple episodes of Adventures

of Super Mario Bros. 3, Bill and Ted's Excellent

Adventures TV series. The reason why I bring

him up now because he's the writer here is because

his writing was as bad as it is in 1984 as it

was in 1991 when he wrote several episodes, three

episodes of Super Mario World. This guy can't

write for crap. I'm sorry. The sad thing is,

he wrote five episodes of G .I. Joe. He wrote

The Legend of Metalhead, Basic Training, Sludge

Factors Part 1 and Part 2, and The Elder out

of the Lost City of Gold. He is also the developer.

series concept for Captain Planet and the Planeteers,

and he also wrote two episodes of that series.

Which is interesting since I've heard that Ted...

Oh god, what's his name? Oh crap. Ted Turner

was the big wig behind Captain Planet, but Phil

Harnage, from what I've seen him before this

and after this, I'm not that fond of his writing.

How do you really feel? Yeah, some people have

not had a very good run here on the show and

other people have been a little bit better. So

I don't know. I don't know how I feel about him.

I guess I'll give it more, give more of that

away as we go through here. But anyways, as far

as this episode, anything else to say or you

just want to get to Castle Grayskull? No, let's

just get to Castle Grayskull. Okay. This may

take a little while, Adam. This language is very

old. And I must find a particular book to help

me with the translation. Well, take your time,

sorceress. Take your time! I'm gonna get some

sleep! We are at Castle Grayskull for the second

time today to talk about episode 97. Highlights

for me... I do like seeing recurring characters,

dot dot dot. But, Stanlin? And Malaktha? No,

I didn't think I disliked Malaktha, but after

this episode I kind of do. But at the beginning

I was just like, really? It's Stanlin we have

to see again? I'm not a big fan of that character.

I do like that character show up again. That's

cool. But then we also messed up and have him

wanting to meet people he's already met before.

So that's bad. Thought it was clever to have

the whole cat nap line in there with Cringer

there. Classic treasure hunt thing where one

party is in a rush so they leave and then the

rest of the secret gets revealed so they don't

know it all. That's classic. Skeletor put your

seat belt on beast man. Yeah, that was one of

mine too And I thought this Hollywood thing was

a cool character an idea I like the whole idea

of him doing voice impersonations basically And

mimicking all the different people and causing

a lot of confusion Being able to throw his voice

apparently too since nobody can tell where it's

coming from that seems like So I thought that

character was a cool idea. I just kind of And

I do like some of the stuff they do with him

in this episode and the way that people get confused

or people kind of learn about stuff. I just would

have liked him to be in maybe even a better episode.

Yeah. Are you anything good to say? The bird

and the beast man. That was kind of funny. Yeah.

You know, you already mentioned the seatbelt

line. I do love when Skeletor belittles his warriors.

It's just so funny. It's a good touch that they

do a lot in this series. Uh, but that's it for

me. Alright, well, let's see if we're gonna turn

into Negative Nancy's when we get to Snake Mountain.

Pretty much. To open the box, you must repeat

the secret passwords. NEPO AMOSIS. You must bring

the book to me, Adam. If it falls into the wrong

hands, all Eternia will be in danger. Don't worry,

sorceress. Nobody else knows about it. Alright,

we're back at Snake Mountain. Three things for

ya. Art of number one would be hey, it's an artifact

of the week episode We need to find the book

of spells because it's important and will give

us power Let's struggle over trying to obtain

this There's miles mayhem when you and wait a

second the sorceress doesn't know anything about

this bird thing Like the bird comes in like first

of all you just let any old bird fly into Castle

Grayskull Um, and, and all the times that we've

been trying to break into Castle Grayskull, why

haven't Skeletor and them just tried to go in

the window? Bird went right in. Not a problem.

Um, but it was just like, number one, she didn't

know that the bird was capable of doing that,

apparently, which I find it weird because she

knows everything about everything on Eternia.

So she should know that the bird has that capabilities.

Or that Beastman has the bird under a spell.

I would like her to be able to detect these things

within Castle Grayskull. Biggest Snake Mountain

part of this episode. His name is Malaktha. I

did not mind Malaktha in previous appearances.

Seems fine, you know, the old archaeologist or,

you know, the old artifact expert type guy, not

that big a deal, could kind of relate to man

-at -arms and kind of whatever. He is lame as

hell in this episode. The number of times he's

throwing Stanley under the bus, the number of

times he's mistrusting him, the number of times

that he's just immediately writing him off with

no reason whatsoever just to do it. It seems

forced, it seems like it wasn't developed by

the writer of this episode, and it literally

ruins that character completely. Well with what

I've seen him write in other cartoons, yeah,

it kind of does fit with his style Yeah, he ruined

somewhat decent recurring character and now I

don't like him at all. So he was lame in this

episode Snake Mountain moment. Yes, how about

you? What do you have? I have three things as

well. I just This episode late once again They've

gotten us over a barrel where the middle episode

is the suckiest out of the three. I think you

just threw away the script for this episode.

Pretty much, yeah. Seriously, they're just gonna

trust the new creature, really, the bird that

fly... They're just immediately gonna trust this

thing, seriously. And then, not only Scanlan,

not only Melaktha, but everybody else just says,

they constantly say this is all the kid's fault.

Yeah, well the only thing that was his fault

was breaking the statue. No, that was really

Orko's fault. Well, yeah, but still. And then

good god, Melaktha needs to be taught a lesson.

That guy. No. So you liked him in this episode?

No. Alright. Yeah, definitely some major parts

of this episode not to like. Let's see how much

of an impact that had on our overall rankings

and awards as we get to the next section. Alright,

it's time to deal out some more hardware with

episode 97 of Bird in the Hand. I will go first

because I think there was two people that deserve

hardware for completely different reasons. We'll

get the obvious one out of the way. We'll take

that Havoc staff. Give it to Stanlin so that

he can hit Molaktha upside the head with it.

Molaktha gets a big ol' Havoc staff in this one.

I will, however, give a power sword to that Hollywag

thing because I think it was a cool character

to introduce and he ended up being good overall.

He was just under Beastman's spell for the first

part, but he helps him out and he's a decent

character. I like him as far as the alien creatures

that we've seen so far in this series. So power

sword to Hollywag. How about you, sir? Let's

see here, I know you got something Malak though,

oh god just These are sighs coming from from

put them in put them in a boiler room with You

know how the standard treasure trap in old temples

where it's a super hot room and then spikes come

out of the walls? Just put them in a boiler room,

have Havoc staffs just come out of the walls

and just automatically just beat the hell out

of them. All right, that's kind of brutal. It's

true. A little extreme. But we'll go with it

as far as an episode rating for this one Number

one just what they do with Malak the number two

Stanley not realizing that he's already met the

sorceress Which is bad research on the writers

part of you're gonna have recurring characters

You should probably at least watch the episodes

of those characters appeared in first. It's just

another artifact of the week episode I don't

like Stanley to begin with Really there's not

outside of the hollywag and a few cool lines

from Skeletor I just don't like this episode

that much. It didn't bore me necessarily You

know, I was still entertained enough to watch

it, but I'll give us some two battle cats out

of five It's a two for me. And what is it for

you? Yeah, it's not a boring episode. It's just

a bad episode. That's what it is Same here two

out of five or it goes we've agreed on something

Doesn't happen very often folks. Ladies and gentlemen,

the world is about to break. That's the first

time in like 10 episodes we've given the same

rating. It's pretty impressive. Had to happen

at some point. Yeah. Alright. Well, that means

there's only one episode left for today, so let's

get to the Battle Cat next. Well, it was supposed

to be a surprise. This had better be good, Orko.

Oh, it's for Teela. I'm working on a capture

beam. You fire it, and rays reach out to grab

and hold a prisoner. It's like throwing a lariat.

Very interesting. Except that this is explosive,

and this is very dangerous unless you know how

to handle it. Oh. Orko, you know your magic is

not always reliable. That's not true. Oh? Does

it always do what you want it to? Yes! Always?

Well... Not always. And you know what kind of

trouble that gets you into? Especially if you

keep fooling around with things you've been told

to leave alone. You are not to touch this. Do

you understand? Yes, sir. It was a good idea,

Father. Yes, it was. Thank you, Urko. The idea

was a wonderful gift. Adam, your parents are

waiting to see us. And I have to check with the

palace guard. See you later. Coming, Orko? I'll

just clean up in here. Orko, do not play with

any of the things in that cabinet. You don't

know how to handle them and they can be dangerous.

Yes, sir. I know. Or anything else in here either.

I mean that. Yes, sir. I don't want him playing

in there. I've changed some of the solutions

around in my supplies and they're not all marked.

Well, you've warned him, so I'm sure he'll be

all right. I decided to do something else. I'm

going to make you pray. which is episode 98,

written by D .C. and Richard Fontana, airdate

Thursday, October 25th, 1984. Prince Adam and

Man in Arms tell Oracle the story of how Adam

discovered the tiger cub that would become Cringer,

and later Battle Cat. There are no evil warriors

in this episode, there's just masters, including

King Rander, the Ram Man, and Zor, which we don't

always get to see. The PSA is Man in Arms explaining

how there may be dangerous containers in your

home. Like the ones he told Orko not to touch

in his workshop, Orko notices that the label

on a vial of poison looks just like Skeletor.

Just like Skeletor. That vial is bad news. Yes

it is, but no it doesn't. As far as Orko's fun

facts, this is the first time we have seen young

Prince Adam and young Cringer since Creatures

from the Tar Swamp. In this episode, it appears

that Cringer could not speak much during his

youth, but in Creatures from the Tar Swamp, the

young tiger appears to be a very well -spoken

cat. When young Tila and her gang approach, this

one's interesting. When they approach Adam, we

can see that one of the boys is Prince Jeremy

from the Royal Cousin. However, when we see the

boy in close -up, his hair has changed to blonde

and his black top has become white. So a little

goof there. What do you think of the origin of

Battle Cats? I wish it wasn't centered around

teaching Orko a lesson of not to touch stuff

he's not supposed to. Like, I wish it was just...

That was a roundabout way to get to where we

got. It was a roundabout way for the writers

to come up with a way that we're going to talk

about Battle Cat. And even Orko at one point,

he's like, what does this have to do with what

we're talking about? It's like, you're very right

there, Orko. What does this have to do with whatever

we're talking about? Yeah, I mean, I wish the

story was structured better without the whole

Orko thing. Like, we've seen... Well, we're at

98 episodes, and in almost all 98 episodes to

this point, Orko has always done something stupid

or something to piss off Man in Arms, or he's

either been in Man in Arms' lab and touched something

and screwed something up. We've seen enough of

that shit. Just put a story together like, um...

You know, hey, Teela, or, well, not Teela, because

she kind of knows, but, you know, hey, man in

arms, or hey, Orko, did you know about this story?

Let me tell you this story and just have it all

in flashback without having to teach Orko a damn

lesson about shit. Yeah, I can kind of see that.

It was just a very disconnected way to do it.

But I do, as far as like going into the episode,

the idea of having a plot about the origin of

Battle Cat obviously does interest me. Oh, no,

yeah, that's good. I just think that the roundabout

way that they got to it is bad. Yeah, I can see

that. Um, but, you know, Baby Cringer is awesome.

Hey, that's a cast and grace call moment. You

calm down. Oh yeah, that's right. I thought we

were already there. No, we gotta get there, so

let's journey there. Orko, what did you do? As

if I didn't know. I used some of the powders

in the lab. I was only trying to make Cringer

a little braver, like when he's Battle Cat. I

hate being Battle Cat! I don't know why you're

so angry, Natted Arms. All I did was... I gave

you a warning for your own safety and you ignored

it. Listen carefully, Orko. It all goes back

to a time before you came here when Adam first

found Cringer in the hills of Eternia. I had

just made a new device and Adam had offered to

test it. Here's the new animal collar I made

up, Adam. It imitates all the sounds of the animals

you're likely to see on your camping trip. Oh,

thanks, Man -At -Arms. I'll see you in a few

days. Mount Teller. Mid -morning. Spotted one

spined deer. A young buck, general area of forest

glade. Well, that call works. Uh -oh, saber cat.

He looks hungry. The only thing a saber cat is

afraid of is a mandacore. Maybe I can scare it

off with a mandacore call. Phew, thank goodness

this works. Alright for the final time today,

we find ourselves at Castle Grayskull to talk

about the good moments about battle cat I'll

go first because it all started at the beginning

and the good moments were number one. I like

flashbacks number two battle cat origin story

Those two things were both good things. They

had me excited about the episode I then continued

to watch the episode and for some reason did

not write another single castle grayskull moment

I Might tell you something folks. Go ahead Yeah,

I have three. Yay, the Cringer Battle Cat origin

episode. And then Baby Cringer is awesome. I

love how Adam can see the sorceress even as a

child. Like, in the 2002 series when we get to

the Mike Young productions on, the modern series

that was on Cartoon Network, he... actually has

to be introduced to the sorceress like he doesn't

know her at all. So I love in this that they

show that even as a child he knew who the sorceress

was he knew or at least that he could see her

he might not have known who she was at the time

when he was a kid but at least that it shows

that he could see her when she appeared to him.

Like I said before the only thing I have a problem

we don't even need to go to Snake Mountain today.

We're not going to I got a lot of stuff to go

to snake mountain with seriously What why trust

me anything else good to say sir? No, all right,

we're leaving the positive here then we always

have to travel to get to the negative So let's

make our way to snake mountain Well, look at

you fella, where's your mother you've been hurt

Let's see what we can do to fix you up. That

might make you feel better. But you don't look

too good, fella. I think I better take you back

to where you can be properly treated. He's very

badly hurt, Adam. I don't know if I can save

him. Well, you have to try. He lost his mother

somehow. He got terribly hurt out there alone.

If I hadn't come along, Michael... Don't worry,

Adam. I'll do my best. It took quite a while.

But with my help and Adam's love and care, the

kit gradually got well. Hey, I think you'll be

alright. I think so too, mostly thanks to you.

I like him. Cringer! Cringer! Cringer! It's all

right. You're a great pet. But I must admit,

Cringer is a good name for you. You're afraid

of your own shadow. Hello, Sorceress. Hello,

Adam. Hello, Cringer. Gringer, stop trembling.

The sorceress is our friend. Adam, do not be

impatient with your pet. Well, he embarrasses

me sometimes. In spite of that, you will find

he will be very important to you in the future.

You may call him Gringer, but he is not entirely

what he seems to you just now. I don't understand.

You will. Well, I grew up and so did Gringer.

But he never seemed to change. He was still afraid

of his own shadow. And he still stuck to Adam

like a bird. Everywhere Adam went, Cringer followed.

Except for when I became he -man. To make that

change, I had to be alone, so I always made sure

Cringer wasn't around when I did. But I don't

see what that has to do with me not listening

to man -at -arms warning. You will. Things began

to change when an archaeological party discovered

something strange in the Tikon jungle. several

strange buildings in the jungle your majesty's

our initial readings indicate they are over 100

centuries old if that is correct these buildings

may be a link to Eternia's earliest history we

must send out a full archaeological party at

once I suggest we appoint man -at -arms to lead

it he is the most skilled person in Eternia deciphering

ancient writings we can start at once your majesty

well let's see I'll need these boots and this

And this... I'll need this, of course. No one

said anything about Cringer coming along, but

Cringer had other ideas. Cringer? Get out of

there! Still can't get rid of that security cat,

can you, Adam? Oh, he's hopeless. I suppose you'll

find some way to follow me, no matter what I

do. Is there any way to take him mad at arms?

I don't suppose it would do any harm, but you'll

have to watch him and don't let him get into

any trouble. Don't worry. Trouble is the last

thing Cringer looks for. I'll take care of him.

Move over, Cringer. I'm flying with you. Alright,

I'm guessing you don't have anything for Stink

Mountain, but just to give you the respect. The

only thing, as I already mentioned, I don't like

how they got around to the origin story, like

the crux of having to teach Orko a lesson. I

wish it was just a straight flat, you know, someone,

you know, Adam just telling the story to somebody,

not having it wrapped around a stupid lesson.

Other than that, this episode is perfect. I don't

know what's wrong with you. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

This episode for me felt like there was a contest.

Like, the characters knew about our Power Sword

and Havoc Staff presentation, and they literally

were all fighting for a Havoc Staff. Every single

one of them is fighting for a Havoc Staff. Let

me go down the list here. First, you have Orko.

There was... He literally gives us absolutely

no legitimate or good reason as to why, immediately...

He is directly disobeying man -at -arms to not

touch those vials. This isn't just Orko trying

some magic and it goes wrong or whatever. It's

like, literally, man -at -arms in the room don't

touch that stuff. It's very dangerous. Walks

out the room and Orko's immediately touching

the stuff like, I'm gonna do this. Like, Orko,

you're a douche for that. All right. Then we

go to the flashbacks. If we thought we hated

Tila before She's proven to us in this episode

that she just doesn't become a douche in older

age. She was douche to begin with Her leading

the leading the bullying of Adam and Cringer

and making fun of them and this then the other

Tila you're a douche Adam Not as big of a douche

because I liked you for the most part of this

episode, but at one point You literally go to

somebody and say that Cringer embarrasses you.

Now, well, he said, sometimes, yeah, he said,

sometimes he embarrasses me. Okay. First of all,

that's douche level for you because Even if your

cat's a frady cat or whatever it's your pet and

even if other people are making fun of it You're

still gonna stand out for it. You're not gonna

get to the point where you say yeah, the cat

embarrasses me Yeah, like that's bad news on

you as an owner. So you're a douchebag Ramman

is not a douchebag, but where the hell did he

come from? He was nowhere in this episode until

something needed to be like possibly knocked

down or something and all of a sudden, like,

Raman's there. It's like, what? He has not been

in this episode at all. You're not a douche,

Raman. I just don't know where he came from.

And then we get to Man at Arms. Towards the end

of the episode where he legitimately... They're

trying to get the thing back in the thing. I

don't know what his name was. The monster guy.

They're trying to get him trapped in there, so

He -Man and Battle Cat were luring him in, and

then they need to seal the door or whatever,

but He -Man and Battle Cat haven't come out yet.

And Man -At -Arms makes the decision that he

would lock He -Man in too, if that's what it

came down to. It's so important to have this

guy trapped that, screw it, we will lock He -Man

in there too. First of all, this is douche on

a thousand levels. First of all, if you've already

gotten the monster back in there once, so if

He -Man and Battle Cat can't get out, we'll find

another way to get the monster back in there.

It's not like this is the only absolute chance.

It's now or never, if he gets back out, we are

stuck with this guy forever. Number two, He -Man

is the only... Protector and defender of Eternia

Right. He is the one that is preventing Skeletor

from taking over. He is the one that saves the

day five times a week Monday through Friday Not

on the weekends because there wasn't episodes

You're gonna make the decision that you're gonna

lock him in in this place forever where now he's

just gone First of all, what kind of friend are

you? Second of all, what kind of citizen of Eternia

are you? You're a douche. Okay. So Orko's a douche,

Teal is a douche, Adam is temporarily a douche,

and Man -At -Arms is a big douche. Okay. Those

are my Snake Mountain moments. That's what's

wrong with this episode. This is why I didn't

write anything else at Castle Grayskull other

than, yes, it's a Battle Cat origin story, yes,

we're gonna have flashbacks, and then I get disappointed

for the rest of the time outside of the fact

that I will agree with you, Young Cringer is

cute. And Cringer and Battlecat are fine throughout

this entire episode and it's cool seeing him

Turn we didn't talk about it, but when he actually

has a sword and he points to him accidentally

I guess and turns Cringer into Battlecat. That's

cool. And then everybody being like what is that?

That doesn't look anything like Cringer. That's

not an accident because he man Because the way

that scene goes is Cringer is in our foreground,

He -Man is in our background, and Cringer is

looking at the back of Adam, and once he is transformed,

he's like, it's okay, Cringer, it's me, it's

all right, here you go. Yeah, no, no, but no,

he doesn't realize it's going to turn Cringer

into Val Cap. Right, he doesn't realize it, but...

That's what I'm saying, it's by accident that

he points the sword at Adam. No, it's not an

accident. No, I mean as far as turning him into

something. He is pointing towards him, but he's

kind of just more pointing towards him He's holding

the sword. So therefore the sword points at him

and then that happens now I would like Adam to

because if I do this if I'm Adam and I by accident

in a way point my sword at Cringer and it turns

into battle cat. I immediately I'm gonna start

pointing my sword at a lot more things See what

else I can turn into something Great. Now, I

know it was meant to be for Cringer, like the

Sorcerer says. You know, it was always meant

to be Cringer, so it wasn't like it was just

some random thing he points a sword at. There's

a power within Cringer, or a purpose there. So

that part was cool too, but a whole lot of bad

stuff in this episode from a bunch of different

characters. So I will disagree with you about

this episode being perfect, but let's get to

the awards and rankings to see how drastically

we might differ in our ratings. My freeze ray

will stop it cold! Doesn't have any effect! Get

out of here! Hurry! Form a block! Set for maximum

stun! Our combined freeze rays may hold it! Easy,

Cringer. It's me, Adam. What happened to Cringer?

You will find he will be very important to you

in the future. You may call him Cringer, but

he is not entirely what he seems to you just

now. Well, you're certainly not a Cringer anymore.

Alright, time to see who won the battle for the

Havoc Staff. There's a lot of people competing

for it. I ultimately will give it to two people

who I think were the biggest douchebags. Coincidentally,

it's father and daughter, Tila and Madden Arms.

You can both have a Havoc Staff and you can stab

each other with it. for for telling the story

and For him being able to do a couple of things

in the story. I will give Adam a power sword

I do not I agree with you. I do not like him

I mean, I I kind of don't mind him saying that

Crenshaw embarrasses him because it's he's he's

admitting something that It's not something that

he doesn't like Cringer for. It's something that

he just feels... I mean, it's like, you know,

if one of our friends embarrassed us. That's

the way I looked at it. I didn't look at it as

Adam piling on Cringer like the bullies did.

And obviously, I gotta give this power sword

to Cringer. Anytime Cringer is the spotlight

of an episode, he has to get a power sword. Fair

enough. Any other hardware? Nope. All right,

you're nicer than I am. As far as episode ratings,

I know you're gonna give a higher one than this.

I'm not trying to make the episode sound like

it's awful. It is Cringer's backstory, Battle

Cat's backstory. There is a lot of cool stuff

there. I just wish every other person in the

episode wasn't a tool during it. So I will deduct

some points for that and I will give it a three

and a half out of five. Three and a half out

of five. It's not terrible. It's a pretty good

episode. Just a lot of flaws with some characters.

What do you think? I'll give it a four and a

half. I didn't really like the, as I've already

said multiple times, I know people love it when

I repeat myself, I don't like the execution of

how they got to the origin story, so I'll take

a half point off for that, so four out of five

orcos, or 4 .5 orcos. Yeah. All right. I like

that you're giving haves out now. It's a fun

game that we play here. And also, you are...

Thankfully, you're doing all the math on this,

correct? You are a huge fan of the origin stories,

which I am too. So I just think out of all of

them so far, this may be one of the weaker origin

stories we got based on a lot of the actions

of the different characters, not Cringer or Battle

Cat's fault. All right. Break time, huh? Yep,

break time. PSA time, ladies and gentlemen. Hear

the crappy execution of the first PSA after this.

Remember, listen to what other people have to

say. What is it, Man -at -Arms? Dinner's ready.

Oh! In today's adventure, we saw what happens

when we make up our minds about something before

we have the facts. It's called jumping to conclusions.

And anyone who does that will usually find that

the conclusion is wrong. That's what happened

to Malakva. If he had only... Well, hello, Holly.

Is there something you want to say? Yes. Uh -oh.

Don't jump to conclusions. Don't jump to conclusions.

That's good advice. And if anyone asks, just

say a little bird told you. See you all soon!

In today's adventure, Orko was warned not to

play with certain bottles. Well, Orko didn't

listen, and he nearly caused a lot of trouble.

There may be containers like this one in your

home. This symbol is a warning of poison. Say,

that looks like Skeletor! And just like Skeletor,

it's bad news. It can make you very sick. So

if you see this picture on a bottle or box, it

means I'm dangerous. Don't touch me. Be a safe

person, not a sorry one. Alright, thanks for

sticking with us. Before we let you go, though,

we've got to give you our overall thoughts on

the series so far. And one reason we're doing

that for sure on this episode is because guess

what, Mike? What was that? We are halfway through

Season 2. It can't get any, it can't go any faster.

We're halfway through. We've reached the 33rd

episode, obviously out of 65. So we are at the

halfway point. So, uh, quickly though, before

you go on about your nonsense, um, cause you're

acting like it's getting bad, blah, blah, blah,

blah. It is no, um, you actually have enjoyed

the first half of season two better than you

enjoyed the second half of season one. There's

something wrong with that math that no you 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Times in the second

half of season 1 you rated something 0 or 1 13

times so far the first half of season 2 Only

8 Only eight times have you done that. So you've

genuinely liked a little better. I only did it

three times this this half And as far as good

at good ratings, I've given one two, three four

five and you've given one two three As far as

an actual average rating I'm gonna break it down

half by half by half so far. So the first half

of season one You gave a three point four one

Mm -hmm second half of season one you gave a

two point five two You went basically from three

point four to two point five All right now with

this half of season two you're up to two point

six nine So that's only a little over little

over ten points, so you've gone up a little for

myself first half of season one I was at three

point three eight Then I went down to three point

two And now I am up to 3 .28. So we both liked

the first half of season one the best so far,

we both liked the second half of season one the

worst so far, and then we've gone slightly up

now with the first half of season two. We've

had two episodes, Origin of the Sorceress and

Rainbow Warrior, which we equally liked. at the

top of the scale, either a five or four and a

half. Um, we also had three episodes into the

abyss, a trip to Marania and things that go bump

in the night that we rated one and a half or

lower both of us. So those are the ones we've

agreed on. Um, so yeah, I guess we, we've been

slightly more positive than we were at the end

of season one. And I would like to quickly correct

myself because I was talking out of my ass when

I was talking about J. Michael Straczynski I

must have been thinking of someone else because

he did not write a single episode in season one

See, I don't know. I think what it is is he was

on the BCI DVD special features talking about

the series overall So that's why I thought he

had more to do with the series. I think I was

confusing him And not that this person didn't

write any season. Yeah. The J. Brynn Stevens.

Right. I think I was confusing those two because

Brynn Stevens was listed as J. Brynn Stevens

did three episodes at least in season one. He

might have done a couple more, but I know he

did at least three. Um, and also did one in season

two and then Jay Michael Strazinski's done, uh,

three in season two. So together, it seems like

those two have done a lot, but I was getting

them. I was kind of counting them as the same

person, which is not correct. They just are long

names that start with J. Um, so my bad on that,

but, uh, anyways, so we're both slightly positive.

At least more than we were at the end of season

one. So what do you think we have half of season

two to go? We are basically 25 % left of the

entire series What are your hopes or thoughts

or predictions? It's got to get better. It really

does. I mean I know That in the next couple episodes

we're gonna have some good ones like the time

wheel and hunt for he -man and that kind of stuff

So I I know there's gonna be good episodes, but

they need to drop All of these side characters

like Malaktha, like Scanlan, like, well, thankfully

we haven't had Cousin Jeremy again, because I

probably, this podcast would have gone on another

hiatus if Cousin Jeremy came back. Oh my God,

that kid's so horrible. You know, but I know

there are episodes coming up that I'm probably

going to give fives and four and a halfs or fours

and stuff like that. So I know, I just wish that

they would. Focus more on He -Man versus Skeletor

and the evil like He -Man and the Masters versus

Skeletor and the evil warriors to hell With all

these side characters and villain of the week

crap and all that How do you really feel? I just

told you stop asking me that I don't know I'm

thinking we're still gonna end on a good note.

I'm hoping that The second half of season two

will be the best half of any of the seasons or

at least it'll be close to what we had thought

about the first half of season one. I'm hoping

it'll improve slightly over the first half of

season two and then we'll just get a little more

positive here. I think there's some good stuff

left. I think there's some good characters we

haven't seen yet that I'm hoping to see. Hopefully

I'm not left wanting at the end of this and hopefully

all the characters I remember seeing actually

do make an appearance in the series. So yeah,

we only got 25 % of the series left. Good hurry

up. I'm excited for it. I'm not dreading it or

wishing it was over Yeah, thank you for listening

to tales of attorney if you'd like to get in

contact with us to leave feedback for the show

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in our next adventure, where we will continue

season two, discussing episodes 99, 100, and

101, The Time Wheel, Search for the Past, and

The Hunt for He -Man. For now, I am TF2 and Mike

with... The one and only Optimus Solo. By the

power of Grayskull, you all have the power. We

wait, Webster! He -Man's goodness will prevent

him from letting the people of Stone City suffer!

He'll see things our way! And then the power

of Grayskull will be ours! And the best part

is, we won't have to share it with... Ah, Skeletor!

How good to see you! You've been awfully quiet

today, Eveline. I thought I'd see what you were

up to. Hmm, what's this? Oh. It's nothing. I

can see it right in front of me, Eveline, so

it's not nothing. Does it belong to anyone? Uh,

no. Hold on a second, Bob. Yes! I hope we didn't

wake you with the noise, Skeletor, but we want

the life -bringer. Is that the life bringer?

Yes! Sorry, He -Man. Haven't seen it. Somehow

I don't think he believed me.