Montork

Montork is a Trollan wizard, Orko's uncle, and by his nephew's own account the best magician in their family. He turns up three times in the original He-Man series and once in She-Ra: Princess of Power, and every time his competence is the premise the plot immediately complicates. He is captured, bewitched, sabotaged or knocked off course almost as often as he gets to show what Trollan magic is good for.

The pattern has a purpose. Orko spends most of the series as the Masters' designated screwup, the one whose spells fail when they matter. Giving him an uncle who is supposed to be better at it, and then watching that uncle run into the same kind of trouble, makes the point that magical skill and the ability to look after yourself are two different things.

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Trouble in Trolla (1984), 4:32 to 6:25, 1 minute 53 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

"Trouble in Trolla" is the episode that puts Montork's standing, not just his safety, on the line. A younger wizard named Snoob beats him in a public duel for the headship of the Trollan Academy of Magic, and Montork's own magic fails him in ways he cannot explain. Orko, certain there is more to the story, returns to Trolla with He-Man and Battle Cat and discovers the real explanation: Snoob has secretly been teaching Trollan magic to Skeletor's ally Whiplash, who drained Montork's power from the shadows so that an indebted Snoob would take the academy instead.

The episode's best idea is what it does with the rescue once the sabotage is exposed. Neither Orko nor the chastened Snoob can beat the giant Scarg Whiplash sends after them alone, and it is Montork's experience, not a bigger spell of his own, that shows them how to combine their separate magic into one working attack. Snoob gets his apology and his second chance, Whiplash is hauled back to Eternia in a chest, and Montork gets his post back because someone else admits what actually happened.

Montork's first appearances both put him on the losing end of someone else's magic. In "Orko's Favorite Uncle," a storm and the wizard Tauron's summoning spell pull him to Eternia along with a fellow Trollan sorcerer, Gark; Tauron enslaves Gark on arrival and later turns Montork against his own nephew the same way, erasing his memory of their bond. Orko is the one who undoes it, standing in the open and simply insisting, "You are my Uncle Montork. I'm Orko," until the spell breaks.

"The Return of Orko's Uncle" runs the same shape a second time with a different villain. Montork captures the wizard Azrog on Trolla, gets knocked off course by Azrog's own escape, and ends up needing rescue again once Azrog turns the tables and hexes Orko instead. This time it is Montork who breaks the spell, telling his nephew that love is the most powerful force there is, a line "The Greatest Magic" would later turn into an actual rule for how Trollan magic works.

"The Greatest Magic" is Montork's only appearance outside the original He-Man series, and the one time his own magic is what sets the plot moving rather than something done to him. A spell meant to pull only Orko back to Trolla catches She-Ra as well, and Montork, introducing himself at the Unfortress as head of the Trollan Academy of Magic, explains that the Crimson Council who keep Trolla's magic running has vanished.

He also gets to be the one who states the rule outright this time: "When a Trollan magician is in love, he can sometimes work magic through his loved one." It is the same mechanism that broke Azrog's spell on Orko earlier in his run, now spoken aloud as a piece of Trollan magical theory. The rule arrives with little setup, more a convenience than an earned payoff, but it is still Montork's clearest moment as a teacher rather than a rescue case.