Kowl

He-Man has Orko, and on Etheria the Great Rebellion has Kowl, a small flying friend who does much the same job. He warns Adora of danger and carries news between camps, and the show's opening narration names him as one of only three others who share She-Ra's secret identity, alongside Light Hope and Madame Razz. Lou Scheimer voices him, credited as Erik Gunden.

He is on screen in 42 of the show's episodes, and far more often as background than as the focus: in rebel-camp scenes he is usually somewhere in the frame while the story belongs to someone else.

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Birds of a Feather (She-Ra: Princess of Power, 1985), 2:57 to 4:57, 2 minutes. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

"Welcome Back, Kowl" is the episode that puts his loyalty on trial. Imp frames him for taking Horde money after Kowl drops a goosh-fruit on him, and the timing is made worse by a private promise Kowl makes to Madame Razz the same night, one he will not break even when it leaves him without an alibi. The rebel camp turns on him, he sets out alone for the Fright Zone to clear his name, and the episode resolves with an apology rather than a punishment once the truth comes out.

"The Wizard" tests him from the other direction. Kowl fails to warn Bow and Adora about an approaching Horde patrol, Bow is frozen as a result, and Bow calls him a coward for it back at camp. Rather than argue, Kowl and Madame Razz slip away together to find a wizard who might sell them a courage spell, and the episode treats his self-doubt as a real problem worth solving on its own terms rather than a joke to be waved off.

"Birds of a Feather" gives him his only named relative on screen: his cousin Red Eye, who approaches Hordak hoping to join the Horde and offers Kowl's own feathers as proof of worth. Shadow Weaver uses the feathers for a family mind-reading spell that lets the Horde eavesdrop on the rebel camp, and once Castaspella works out how it was done, Kowl decides he has become a danger to his friends and flies off alone to the Valley of the Lost rather than put them at further risk.

"Zoo Story" pairs him with another of his own kind: a female owl named Kowla, who is just as keen on being well fed as Kowl admits he once was himself. The two are caught together and caged in Hordak's private zoo, and the episode's clearest line is Kowl's own: being taken care of is not the same as being cared for, and he is not willing to settle for the first just because the second looks the same from inside a cage.