Something To Prove

Teila has a destiny. We’re told pretty early on that Teila is actually the daughter of the Sorceress. Man-At-Arms found Teila as a baby and decided to raiser her (he was mustache-less at that time. By the time she began to form memories, I’m sure the mustache was firmly in place.) The Sorceress is one of the three most powerful forces on Eternia (the other two being He-Man and, you guessed it, that old calcified cackler, Skeletor). So Teila, presumably, has a lot to look forward to. But she doesn’t know any of this.

Teila takes every opportunity to test herself and go beyond the rules laid down by Man-At-Arms. It’s true that she isn’t a child; she is, after all, the captain of the guards! Man-At-Arms still tries to protect her, though. Maybe it’s because no matter how old she gets, she’s still his daughter and he will always worry about her. Or maybe it’s because Teila takes risks a little too willingly and places herself in unnecessary danger.

Like the time Teila wanted to spend a couple of days in the Darklands. She ended up getting captured by the sorcerer Kor’s soldier creatures. Kor turned out to be a good guy, but it could easily have been the realm of an evil sorcerer.

There are times we want to prove ourselves so badly that we behave rashly. Why is it so important to prove ourselves to others? Because we start out in life without much experience. We learn how to do a lot of things from watching others. They tell us when we’re doing things right and when wrong. So naturally we look to them to validate our abilities.

This isn’t a bad thing. Before we have internalized a skill or ability, it’s important to look to experts so we know whether we’re doing it right. Later on, once we’ve acquired the necessary knowledge and experience, we’ll be able to judge for ourselves.

The mistake Teila made is thinking that Man-At-Arm’s validation just by itself will make her capable or not. This is backwards. It’s our successful abilities which win the validation, and not the other way around. It’s easy to become impatient with ourselves and want to be good at something right away. If we think that the validation of others is the mark of being good at something, that’s what we’ll aim for. But that can result in lying or misrepresenting our actual abilities, just to get a good scorecard.

In the end, the only one who will know whether we’ve succeeded is ourselves. That’s not something we can take a shortcut for.