- For other episodes about Prince Adam's cousins, see Creatures from the Tar Swamp and Just a Little Lie.
The Royal Cousin is the 21st episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Prince Adam's cousin Jeremy pays a visit to the Royal Palace, and his mischief nearly dooms all of Eternia.
Synposis[]
Skeletor learns that Evil-Lyn and Tri-Klops failed to plant the Growth Globe beneath the Royal Palace of Eternos because He-Man stopped them and took the globe. Enraged, Skeletor ordered them to retrieve the globe and plant it as planned. At the palace, Prince Adam told Man-At-Arms that He-Man had taken the globe to Castle Grayskull for safekeeping. Then Teela arrived to inform the prince that he had been summoned to the Royal Throne Room. There, his father the King told Adam that his cousin Jeremy had arrived for a visit, and ordered Adam to look after him during his stay.
Adam introduced Jeremy to Man-At-Arms and Orko in Man-At-Arms' Laboratory. Orko offered to show Jeremy some magic, but the young royal was more interested in one of Duncan's new inventions: the Rock softener. Without asking, Jeremy decided to test the device on the legs of one of the laboratory tables, causing it to collapse and spill it's contents. Duncan reminded Adam that he needed him to test the Rock softener out on the plains. Therefore, the Prince asked Ram Man to keep an eye on Jeremy. Soon, the royal cousin was forcing Ram Man to humiliate himself by catapulting into a pond in the royal courtyard. With Ram Man distracted, Jeremy took off on a Sky-Sled, despite Adam having told him he could not use any of the vehicles. Ram Man managed to jump and grab on to the sled, but then found himself hanging on to it as Jeremy refused to stop.
Evil-Lyn and Tri-Klops had left Snake Mountain in the Basher to search for the Growth Globe, even though they realized that He-Man could have hidden it anywhere. They spotted Jeremy on the Sky-Sled with Ram Man hanging on, as did Adam and Man-At-Arms as they were testing the Rock softener. When Jeremy finally agreed to take the sled down, he found the controls were stuck. Adam transformed into He-Man and grabbed onto the Sky-Sled before it crashed into a rocky mountain. The two Evil Warriors landed the Basher out of sight to spy on the heroes. They learned about the Rock softener and Evil-Lyn decided to trick Jeremy into getting it for her, so they could use it on the walls of Castle Grayskull.
Back at the Royal Palace, Adam punished Jeremy for his actions by telling him he was not allowed to visit the street market as planned. Jeremy left his room anyway, and tried out a Magneto Boomerang at a market stall. When the salesman insisted that Jeremy didn't have enough money to buy one, an older female arrived and offered the salesman a valuable coin. She told Jeremy he could keep the boomerang if he helped her to "play a joke on her old friend Man-At-Arms". She asked the boy to bring her the Rock Softener and Jeremy gladly agreed. Shortly afterwards, while King Randor informed Jeremy he would be returning home the next day, Man-At-Arms entered the throne room in alarm to tell them the Rock softener had been stolen. He and Adam quickly realized that the device would be used against the hardest substance on the planet: the walls of Grayskull. When Jeremy confessed he had given the device to a woman, Man-At-Arms surmised it must have been Evil-Lyn in disguise.
Adam once again transformed into He-Man, and travelled to Grayskull with Man-At-Arms on a Battle Ram. Feeling bad about his actions, Jeremy followed them on an Android Horse. At the castle, while Evil-Lyn was figuring out the correct settings on the device, a Hover Robot informed Tri-Klops it had detected the Growth Globe nearby. Evil-Lyn quickly told Tri-Klops to activate the globe by remote. The globe began to grow, and the evil warriors would only stop it's growth after it had knocked down the castle's wall from the inside. Evil-Lyn then activated the softener to attack the walls from the outside.
The Sorceress sensed an attack on the castle. She tried to contain the globe, but it proved to be too powerful for her magic. When He-Man and Man-At-Arms arrived on the scene, the door to the jaw-bridge was already starting to crack. The Sorceress used telepathy to urge He-Man to enter the castle, but when the jaw-bridge fell open, it's impact knocked the rock softener off it's stand and He-Man ended up in the path of it's beam. With his stength severely weakened, He-Man was unable to step out of the confines of the beam. Man-At-Arms tried to come to He-Man's aid, but Evil-Lyn conjured up some tangling vines from the ground that grabbed him by the legs. Jeremy arrived and was shocked to see He-Man was hurt. Man-At-Arms told Jeremy to use his boomerang to get the softener. Tri-Klops picked up the device, but Jeremy's boomerang managed to snatch it out of his hands. Man-At-Arms reversed it's effects on He-Man. With his strength returned, He-Man grabbed both of the evil warriors and asked Man-At-Arms to lock them up in a Porta-Prison.
He-Man responded to the Sorceress' call for help by running into Grayskull and using his strength to push back the globe's growth. His strengh managed to do what her magic could nog achieve: to make it shrink back to it's original size. He then asked the Sorceress to levitate him and the globe to a window, where he subsequently gave the glove a mighty kick which sent it hurtling into outer space.
The following day, before Jeremy departed from the palace, he apologized for his bad behaviour. Man-At-Arms complimented Jeremy on his prowess with the Magneto Boomerang, and Adam ensured his cousin that even He-Man was glad to have received help from Jeremy. As his shuttle began to lift off, Jeremy stated that he would never forget his trip, and from then on always to listen to people who cared about him. Then Orko arrived on the scene, carrying Jeremy's boomerang. He tried to hurl it after the transport, but the boomerang soon returned and chased Orko instead.
Moral[]
He-Man: "Well Orko, Jeremy sure changed his ways."
Orko: "Yeah. He was acting pretty rotten for a while. I think all he really wanted was for people to notice him. But what good does it do to be noticed if people don't like what they see?"
He-Man: "That's right. The best way to get attention is not to look for it. By being polite and helpful, people will not only notice you, they'll like you, too."
Orko: "I'm going to do something helpful right now."
He-Man: "What's that?"
Orko: "I'm going to say goodbye!"
Heroic Warriors[]
Allies[]
Others[]
Evil Warriors[]
Locations[]
Vehicles[]
Technology[]
Artifacts[]
Cast[]
- John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam and Ram Man
- Alan Oppenheimer as Man-At-Arms, Skeletor and Market Salesman
- Linda Gary as Teela, Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress
- Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Orko, King Randor, Tri-Klops and Hoverbot
- Erika Scheimer as Prince Jeremy
Behind the Scenes[]
- Script was approved April 6, 1983 and final script revision was done April 15, 1983. However, the title was originally "Treacherous Cousin" and the Growth Globe was not yet part of the story.
- Series consultant Michael Halperin suggested to have Ram Man babysit the Prince and that a Sky Sled was used for Jeremy's joyride rather than a Wind Raider.
Continuity[]
- Evil-Lyn uses the same old lady disguise she previously adopted in The Curse of the Spellstone, which was also used by Jarvan in A Friend in Need. A slightly altered version appears as the good witch in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode Brigis and then as a disguise used by Catra in Portrait of Doom.
- The android horse was first seen in A Friend in Need and will be seen again in Pawns of the Game Master, where it is called 'Strider' by Adam. However, it is not the same character as the toy based Stridor that would be seen in Origin of the Sorceress.
- Jeremy's character model can be spotted in the second season story Battlecat during a flashback set in Adam's youth.
Errors[]
- The first time Ram Man is seen emerging from the pool at the Royal Palace at the request of Jeremy, the camera pans a bit too far to the left, revealing the end of the drawing of the water.
- When Adam and Man-At-Arms look up at the sky while testing the Rock softener, Adam is too large in comparison to Man-At-Arms. His animation cel was supposed to be placed in front of Man-At-Arms instead of behind, him to achieve the correct scale, but in that case Adam would have obstructed too much of Man-At-Arms.
- When Adam is scolding Jeremy in his room, Man-At-Arms ' shoulder line is visible through his neck. The animation cells are stacked the wrong way in this shot.
- When He-Man rushes into Castle Grayskull, the jaw-bridge, which had been weakened earlier, but was still attached to it's hinges when last seen, is now missing.
- When all the heroic warriors burst out laughing at the end, we hear Teela join in, even though she isn't present in this scene.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Frank's He-Man page
- Internet Movie Database
- The TVDB
- TVmaze
- Gallery courtesy of He-Man Reviewed