SECRET OF THE SWORD (1985)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Maybe if I'd been in my grade-school years during the rise of the Filmation HE-MAN cartoon, I would have liked it no less than the actual superhero cartoons I was raised on. Yet I doubt it. I found the He-Man series a soulless, design-by-committee concept, made even less charming by the fact that even the non-toy characters were poorly conceived.

Yet when the episodes comprising SECRET OF THE SWORD debuted, I rather liked He-Man's new sister She-Ra. I don't know how much design input the toy line had on the characters, but I thought overall both the heroine and her support-characters looked better. Maybe this was because HE-MAN was slapped together as a vague amalgam of magical fantasy and clunky science-fiction. The same elements are in SHE-RA as well, but there was a better opposition of those elements. The heroine and her comrades-- a flying horse, a talking owl, an archer and a comical witch with a talking broom-- had a more pronounced fantasy-feeling. In contrast, most of the sci-fi elements were aligned with the villainous Hordak and his coterie of super-powered henchpersons (though he had a spooky witch-ally named Shadow Weaver).

The plot's pretty thin, so I'll keep to the bare essentials. Guided by a prophecy from his mentor The Sorceress, He-Man (in his "secret identity" of Prince Adam) leaves his homeworld Eternia and visits the dimension of Etheria, along with his friend-and-steed Cringer/Battlecat. All the hero knows is that he must give a second sword, one much like his own, to a heroine of that world. He's summarily captured by the forces of Hordak, under the command of an officer named Adora, who turns out to be the one he's supposed to seek out. 

As I've already given away, Adora is actually the sister of Adam, having been stolen by Hordak during an abortive invasion of Eternia-- an invasion abetted by He-Man's nemesis Skeletor. Hordak had Adora raised as an officer in his Horde just for spite, but Adora doesn't know she's on the wrong side. With just a few preachy statements He-Man opens Adora's eyes to Hordak's tyranny. Thus she proves worthy of the sword, which transforms her into the super-strong heroine She-Ra, and her horse into a Pegasus-type.

To say the least, Hordak is not pleased to have a super-powered heroine busting up his operations. He makes a stealth invasion of Eternia to get even, joins briefly with his despised former ally Skeletor, and after defeat returns to Etheria. She-Ra/Adora also decides to remain in Etheria rather than joining her family in Eternia, until the day that she expels the Horde from her adopted world.

I've skipped various incidents, but it's a thinly plotted adventure anyway. As I recall the average episode of SHE-RA was better plotted than the average episode of HE-MAN, but maybe I just liked the way She-Ra seemed to get a little bustier after her transformation.