Written by TAKE the CHALLENGE!
Some amazing Masters of the Universe fans have accepted the challenge to watch all 130 Episodes of the 1983 Filmation Cartoon Series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe“ for 130 days straight, one episode per day. Join us!
Be sure to check out the RE-WATCH-A-THON celebratory memento shirts and mugs (long sleeve shirts options are available too).
Today’s Episode is:
Trouble in Arcadia
| PRODUCTION NUMBER | EPISODE TITLE | DIRECTOR | WRITERS | PREMIERE DATE | RE-WATCH-A-THON DATE |
|---|
| MU39 | “Trouble in Arcadia” | Gwen Wetzler | David Wise | November 8, 1983 | Jan 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synopsis: Adam and Teela come across a secret city called, Arcadia, where the women rule and the men are slaves. | |||||
CLICK HERE to Watch on YOUTUBE (or watch it embedded below:)
OUR REVIEW:
What is more of a Teela and Prince Adam centric episode, this story built upon a familiar "Lady Land" sci-fi trope, while familiar, is still rather entertaining here. Teela showing off her athletic abilities is always fun to watch. (8/10)
Comment, Review and Discuss below:
Tomorrow’s Episode is: “House of Shokoti Part One”
I REALLY don’t like this episode, primarily for two reasons: 1. He-Man is only in it for probably a minute of screentime and 2. The story is terrible. I actually love the premise, I just think the execution is poor – the women hate the men, but you never get much backstory there outside of “because." I am glad to see Teela be able to shine though.
On point 1 – ever since I was kid I (as I assume most) prefer it when Adam is He-Man, but I’ve always liked Adam fine. My problem in this episode is what they don’t do: In many episodes where Adam loses his sword/can’t transform they usually let him shine as a hero (Dawn of Dragoon, the Gamemaster, One for All, etc…) but he doesn’t really do that here, he’s mostly just…there. Plus in those episodes He-Man still has a decent amount of screentime (though reduced).
I will say though I’ve always cracked up at the ending bit where you find out Orko was asleep in the Attack Trek the whole time.
Well there is no surprise over here. I like this episode. I consider this a Teela episode so I have no problem having only a minimum amount of He-Man in it. It was great when Teela’s abilities bested their warrior women. It was like Wonder Woman visiting the island of the Amazons and showing them she’s still the boss. The hidden city was great and reminded me of Wakanda in the Marvel movies. Queen Sumana and her soldiers and her throne looked really neat. Maybe one day we will get a cartoon collection figure of Sumana. Ha ha yeah right. I wish. This was very good. 8/10.
This episode had a nice brief start then Adam and Teela start having a childish “boys are stupid, girls have cooties" type gender argument and I was immediately like awww nawwww
yeah out of all the episodes so far, I think this one has aged the worst. Even more than Dragon Invasion because at least it’s racist acting Skeletor crony Jitsu’s only appearance with only a few lines and at least the rest of the episode ignoring that is great.
I would argue that kids shows having an episode debating gender before realizing equality only works wand gives a good moral hen the main characters are kids themselves, as a lot of young kids have these view points and are ignorant at first in life of these sorts of subject matters. When it’s fully grown adults, it’s just really cringe and awkward even for it’s target audience.
If it sounds like I’m phrasing this wrong and somehow am sounding political because any discussion relating to gender these days is political, I apologize.
That brief moment of Teela aimlessly running in a weird room of big pipes is kinda funny.
Just a straight up bad episode.
Maybe there’s a tiny chance it would’ve worked better as a She-Ra story somehow, idk?
Also does anyone think this episode has too much “He-Man!" scene transitions?
@slycooperastroboy51 I didn’t notice the transitions but I am fine with gender getting the attention considering the story they were doing. I think it wasn’t until the mid 80s when the first female went into space so calling out Earth for only having male astronauts at the time works. At the same time the story did call out a couple times that there were gender differences. I think the Queen says they need the men to do the heavy lifting or whatever in the mines. Even Teela recognizes at the end there are some gender differences but when it comes to occupations there shouldn’t be.
My favorite line is “Open your eyes Sumana. The men know what they are talking about!"
2 stars. Good start but lacks excitement and fizzels inro a boring, predictable end.