A Tale of Two Cities

Adam and Cringer are relaxing in the jungle when they notice a young woman being chased by a soldier on a flying disc. Adam transforms himself into He-Man and Cringer into Battle Cat. They confront the Gargon Warriors and free the woman, Princess Rhea, then introducer themselves. Rhea states she thought He-Man was only a legend. He-Man offers to escort the Princess back to her father's kingdom, Operon. On the way, Rhea explains that Operon and the city of Targa are bitter enemies. As they near to the city, He-Man notices a storm is about to break. He uses a fallen tree trunk to make a bridge across the water and tells Battle Cat to take Rhea across. Lightning strikes another tree, which hits He-Man and knocks him into the river. He-Man is unconscious, but kept afloat by the broken log. He falls down a waterfall and ends up on the shore of the river. Rhea and Battle Cat arrive too late. A group of Gargons have spotted He-Man and take him to Targa. Rhea and Battle Cat decide to follow.

Inside the dungeon of Targa, He-Man awakens but has lost his memories. He meets a gladiator named Garn who introduces himself is the master of the arena. Gargon soldiers arrive and take He-Man to meet the wizard Draca and Queen Balina. Draca tries to freeze He-Man with rays from his eyes, but He-Man evades them, and one of the Gargon Guards is frozen instead. Balina accuses He-Man of being a spy from Operon. She knows He-Man freed Rhea from her guards and demands to know where he hid the Princess. He-Man repeats he doesn't know who Rhea is or where Operon lies.

Outside the city, Rhea and Battle Cat hear trumpets echoing from Operon. Battle Cat picks up He-Man's smell and hurries towards the city, but triggers a trap door and drops into a pit. Gargon guards arrive on the scene and capture Rhea before she can help Battle Cat. He-Man and Garn are about to face each other in the arena. Garn is intend on winning his freedom and thinks he will defeat his nameless oponent without much trouble. He-Man manages to evade Garn's attacks, but Draca uses his magic powers to enhance Garn's strength. After He-Man is knocked to the ground, he regains his memories. He defeats Garn and demands that the Queen sets Garn free. Garn is humbled and suprised, and when he learns he had been fighting He-Man, he confesses he thought He-Man was only a legend.

Balina offers He-Man a position as her Captain of the Guard, but he refuses. Draca quietly informs his Queen that Rhea has been captured, after which Balina tells He-Man that he and Garn are free to leave in the morning. When his sword is returned to him, He-Man gets the feeling something is wrong. After exiting the city, Garn offers his help in finding the Princess. They hear Battle Cat's roars coming from the pit trap. By working together, He-Man and Garn free Battle Cat and learn that Rhea has been taken by the Gargons.

The three of them head back to Targa. From a distance they see King Thales being brought in by the Queen's guards. He-Man puts on a robe to disguise himself and frees Thales from the dungeon. They enter the throne room where He-Man sheds his disguise and reveals his true name. The Queen and the Wizard are shocked to learn the stranger is the legendary He-Man. Draca uses his magic to make the mountains and all of Targa shake as a distraction. Balina realizes that the lake on the mountain will overflow the city. He-Man asks Garn to help him save the city. When Garn wonders why they should help their enemies, He-Man explains that all life is previous. Working together, He-Man and Garn manage to create a gap in the floor for the water to run into, keeping the city safe. Soon after, Garn is crowned the new ruler of Targa by King Thales. He-Man takes his leave, but promises to return some day, together with Battle Cat.

**He-Man:** "I hope you enjoyed today's adventure. You know, television is not the only way to be entertained by an exciting story. There is another way. It's called 'reading'. And one of the wonderful things about books is that they allow you to choose whatever kind of adventure you like. A trip with an astronaut, an adventure with the great detective Sherlock Holmes, a comedy, anything. You can find it in a book at your school or neighborhood library. Why, I'll bet there are even some good books right in your own home, just waiting to be read."

John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam and Gargon Warrior

Alan Oppenheimer as Battle Cat/Cringer and Draca

Linda Gary as Princess Rhea and Queen Balina

Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Garn, Gargon Warrior and King Thales

"I have seen that you are a cruel woman and I cannot be a part of cruelty."

― He-Man

1. Behind the scenes: Script was approved on April 4, 1983. This story was an adaption of the episode "Tarzan and the City of Gold" from the Filmation production "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle" (1976) and was in turn partially adapted into a mini-comic that came with several Masters of the Universe action figures. Titled Slave City!, it was written by Michael Halperin and illustrated by Larry Houston. In this version, Queen Balina and Draca are replaced by a single villain, Lodar. The Gargon Warriors are called Kobolds and Princess Rhea is renamed Rana. Garn and the city of Targa retain the same names, but there is no city of Operon. Instead, Princess Rana is the rightful ruler of Targa. Originally, Gorgon's guards from The Defection were going to be reused as Queen Balina's warriors.
2. In the script, Queen Balina had an evil-looking leopard called Sultar as a pet. Sultar was held on a diamond-studded leash and would cower behind the Queen's throne upon being frightened by Battle Cat's mighty roar. After He-Man and Garn save the city of Targa, Queen Balina and Draca are nowhere to be seen, while King Thales appears to be holding court in Targa rather than in his own city of Operon. He is seen putting a helmet on Garn's head in the Queen's throne room while the Gargon guards look on. The original script featured a piece of dialogue that would have explained Garn was being inaugurated as the new king of Targa here.
3. Continuity: He-Man dodges a Gargon warrior and then picks him up. This same animation was used for him dodging and throwing Mer-Man in Diamond Ray of Disappearance and Evil-Lyn's Plot. Garn's character model was reused as a blacksmith in _One for All_. The animation of Garn trying to break free from He-Man's grip was first used in Diamond Ray of Disappearance, at which time it was He-Man trying to break free from Tri-Klops. It was used once again in It's Not My Fault, this time with Rago's guard trying to escape from Man-At-Arms' grip. King Thales' character model was used again as King Duplis in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode The Mines of Mondor.
4. More continuity: He-Man twice promises that he'll be back to visit Targa (and presumably, Operon since he also adresses Princess Rhea). While there never was another story featuring these locations, Prince Adam and Man-At-Arms do mention an off-screen visit to Garn in Targa in Happy Birthday Roboto.
5. Animation errors and goofs: When He-Man throws a Gargon Warrior into a pool of mud, the horns on his helmet are gone when he emerges. When Garn and He-Man]] race towards the trap Battle Cat is stuck in, for once shot that shows their legs running towards the camera, He-Man is holding his Power Sword in his hand. In the shots preceding and following it, the sword is on his back. Battle Cat is trapped in a pit trap and twice do we get a sense of how deep it is during a panning shot. When He-Man and Garn rescue Battle Cat by forming a human ladder, the trap is suddenly much less deep than it was before. A Gargon guard hands He-Man back his Power Sword. In the next shot, He-Man is shown holding up his arm with it as if he had to reach up to grab it rather than from below.

A Dini-scripted political-mediation script. The two-cities premise lets the writers stage a generation-old conflict and resolve it through patient negotiation rather than force.

Catalogue source: heman.fandom.com (CC BY-SA 3.0).