Saturday Night Showcase: He-Man And The Origin Of The Sorceress

He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe started well into the lives of Prince Adam and friends. He had been He-Man for some time and had fought threats besides Skeletor’s bunch even before we met him. What few origins and backstories we got about the characters were told in flashback and there weren’t that many. At the time it didn’t matter because origins can be boring when you want to get right into the evil fighting. Nowadays as an adult I wish we had gotten an origin for He-Man, but we get one for Orko and separately Marlena coming to Eternia, how Cringer became Battlecat, how Man-At-Arms adopted Teela, and for tonight’s Showcase how the Sorceress became protector of Grayskull.

When an old threat returns to Eternia, the first one the Sorceress ever fought, she tells the story of Teela-Na, a simple village girl fated to become the keeper of Grayskull and guardian of the Swords Of Power and Protection. Tonight we’re told that tale.

Going back to the He-Man newspaper comic story that inspired tonight’s entry we learned in that continuity the Sorceress was fifteen when she took over the role. That’s pretty close to what she is here, and the creators of the comic did begin on the show. The episode itself however was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who would go on to create Babylon 5 and I like what he came up with, even tying her origin to the Horde. You did notice the symbols on the scouting party, right? This and the Sword Of Protection is one of the few times elements of She-Ra: Princess Of Power made their way into the parent show. (Or brother show if you prefer. :D) Wiki Grayskull suggests that they didn’t want to reveal too much about The Secret Of The Sword, although the Horde is mentioned in the script but not in the episode. Remember, the Evil Horde started as a second evil faction in the Masters Of The Universe toyline. The wiki also notes that this isn’t the only thing missing from the final script and two minutes of the episode was missing from the home video release, although they don’t say why.

This is a perfectly reasonable origin for the Sorceress and I think it’s a good story. As far as the other origins…maybe I’ll showcase those stories someday too.