Buzz-Off (200x)

Buzz-Off sets out on what should be the smallest possible errand, fetching honeyberries from the village of Veridas for his queen's Jubilee. At a bridge a giant named Azdar knocks him aside with a cheap shot, and rather than admit it, Buzz-Off tells nobody. He informs Prince Adam the berries were not ripe, snaps "You heard wrong" when Adam points out a nearby crystal keeps fruit ripe year-round, and swears Orko to silence with "I wasn't beat up. I was sucker punched."

Every later mistake grows out of that first lie. When news arrives that the bridge has collapsed, Buzz-Off nearly gives himself away vowing to make "those creeps pay... um, whoever they are." The episode's best scene comes near the end: flying in alone to face the giants a second time, Buzz-Off hears the same insults that worked on him before, "Insect! Bug!" and "Coward," and this time does not take the bait. Buzz-Off finishes the episode the way he started it, on an errand for fruit, but without anything left to hide.

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Disappearing Dragons (1984), 5:39 to 7:30, 1 minute 51 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

Buzz-Off arrives fully formed in "Sky War," the 2002 series' fifth episode: proud, insular and certain that Andreenos needs nobody's help. When King Randor asks him and Stratos to stand together against Skeletor, Buzz-Off turns him down flat: "Alliances are for the weak." His pride is what nearly every one of his episodes ends up testing.

"Siren's Song" pays off Buzz-Off's refusal of a loyalty oath in a way he could not have expected. Ram-Man, the loudest voice demanding that "the new guy" swear his allegiance, is also the first to call him a traitor once a stolen weapon goes missing and Buzz-Off turns up knocked out on guard duty. The character least interested in performing loyalty is the one accused of betraying it, while the one who performed it loudest is the one a villain's spell is using.