The Price of Promises

So here's a problem - how do you go about breaking a promise you made to a dragon?

He-Man and Teila faced this situation. They knowingly and willingly entered into a bargain with a dragon. Why? The dastardly hell-fiend Skeletor sneaked into the palace and turned Man-At-Arms into a statue. The Sorceress didn't know how to turn back Duncan, but she did know someone who did: Granamyr, the most ancient Dragon and the wisest being on all of Eternia. One little problem, though. She can't tell anyone where he lives. She made a promise.

This should have been a big warning to He-Man. Be careful what you promise dragons.

He-Man and girl power heroine Teila manage to find their way to Granamyr. He sees em, makes a few choice remarks about the human race, and agrees to help them. If. If they will promise to cut down the oldest tree in all of Eternia - the oldest living being in all of Eternia - thereby making Granamy the oldest of em all.

Okay. Maybe there's something special about this tree. Maybe He-Man and Teila should do some investigating before they agree to cutting it down. But they were desperate. Desperate people do stupid things.

Making a deal with the devil, it's called. Wanting something so bad that you don't look toward the consequences. Or maybe you do look to the consequences, but you do it anyway. For He-Man and Teila, they were saving Duncan's life. They agreed to banish to the demon dimension of they were to renege on their promise.

Be careful what you promise dragons.

Of course the tree turns out to be a living, conscious being. (Complete with a blue leprechaun guard.) Of course He-Man and Teila cannot bring themselves to cut it down. They won't pay that price, even for Man-At-Arms.

There is a price on human lives, it turns out, even for one such as Man-At-Arms. It's not so much what you'll pay for a life that determines its price - it's what you won't do. The value of Duncan's life would become meaningless if it was purchased with the blood - or sap, in this case - of an innocent.

Luckily for He and Te, Granamyr is impressed with their choice and doesn't send them to dance with the demons. But still. Granamyr had them in his power. He could've banished them forever.

Be careful what you promise dragons.

Son Of Two Worlds

Prince Adam is a son of two worlds.

He is a son of the royal palace, for one. Accustomed to spacious, luxurious bedrooms and gold plated flatware, he is a royal son of Eternia.

He is a son of Grayskull. Dark, forbidding, and powerful, Grayskull has gifted him with secrets and might beyond compare.

He is a son of King Randor, of Eternia. At ease with a spear alongside a space shuttle, Adam is content to befriend dragons and sorcerers one moment and help Man-At-Arms in his futuristic workshop build a shrinking ray the next.

He is a son of Earth. Born of a mother marooned millions of miles away from her home planet, Adam has the blood of a thousand thousand generations of hunters, killers, heroes, thinkers and, ultimately, survivors.

There are times when Adam struggles with his identity. Like all heroes with secret identities, he can never show his whole self to many of the people he loves. He is surrounded by Eternians. Though many of them may look a lot like humans - except for the strangely high proportion of red-heads - they are not. Whatever human differences live inside him, he has only one other person - his mother - to share them with.

Thankfully, Adam does have confidants: the terrific three. Orco is a fellow outcast who understands the plight of the outsider. The Sorceress shares the burden of other worldly power. And Duncan is entangled in the mystery of mustaches.

Who knows? One day, Adam just might need to know about them.