"The Dragon's Gift" Official Classic Episode Review Thread!

[carlo]

hello my friends.

This week I'm posting 2 ep's, I'm behind, sorry.

Ok, "The Dragon's Gift" (Granamyr) YESS he Rules!

Let's hear all your reviews on this ep.

Carlo

[manny]

wow finally the first ep w the oldest and wisest of the dragons of darksmoke.

skeletor gains access to the royal palace in the guise of another lord.
he had a statue of randor and when he went to grab it manatarms did and was turned it a crystal statue by evil magic

heman went to the sorceress asking for her help unfortunetly the reversal was beyound her power so she then instructed heman to look for granymyr but she couldnt tell them the exact location.
so heman later was teleported to the royal library to look for where to find him. he said that he had just finished lookin up trolls and he said that dragons and trolls r friends and its worth checkin. then he pulled out a map and spotted where he could find him in the ice mountains.

heman battlecat and teela then went on there way they met granymyr and even challenged him and his magic and he was impressed w there courage and listened to what heman had to say. he later convinced granymyr that a gift could help convince him of past dealings w humans how granymyr felt were not appreciative. he later asked them to bring back skytree the only thing in eternia older so he can watch it burn in his firepit. heman and teela agreed and they went off to get him.

when they got to skytree and convinced him heman said that we cant do this and then when heman went back to granymyr and said another one of my fave lines in the entire series by sayin "skytree or any life shouldnt be taken away to save a life"
granymyr acknowledged that and said "i accept this gift heman"
he gave heman a magic book which had the information on how to restore manatarms.


i believe this is an awesome ep and once again its written by larry ditillio and he did a great job on one of his creations

its a fave and a classic i give it a 10

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

Definitely one of the best episodes of the He-Man series IMO - it would probably rate as one of the most character-driven episodes, exploring the relationships between several of the main characters and also the character of He-Man himself. Granamyr is obviously a really well-written guest character who adds a whole other dimension to Eternia's history.

No question, for marks out of 10 I'd give this episode 11!

Take care...

[carlo]

love this ep! what do u think?

[Canadian_He-Man]

This was an excellent episode, and greatly added to the He-Man universe. It featured some nice character development, and featured He-Man truly struggle with a moral dilemma.

Skeletor's role in it was nice, as he did effectively curse Man-At-Arms, and did get away with out reprocussions for doing so. The curse was lifted, but Skeletor still made a good showing here.

Overall, I'd give it a 9 out of 10.

[Spacedust]

Yay, return of the classic episode review threads! Not only that, my first review is one of my all-time favourite episodes.

"The Dragon's Gift" is one of the VERY BEST episodes of the entire classic show's run. (How on Earth it didn't make it onto the '10 Best' DVD, but rubbish like "Quest for He-Man" did, I'll never know!)

Coming from Larry DiTillio it should be good - and he doesn't disappoint. I'd personally rank it as his single best written episode of MOTU.

It's nice to see Skeletor used as the cause of the problem, but for once does not dominate the plot throughout, instead letting it go in a different direction.

He-Man's moral dilemma of whether to cut down Skytree to save Man-At-Arms is dealt with really well, unlike some of the over-moral, over-preachy episodes of late season two.

The story is perfectly balanced between action (mostly in the first half, as He-Man, Teela and Battle Cat seek out Granamyr), and character-driven in the second half, as said heroes face their dilemma.

...And onto the best point of the episode - Granamyr. A wonderful creation, and perfectly brought to life in the episode. His mighty presence, and considering humanity as a lower, unworthy species, is really believable.
Of all of Granamyr's episodes, this is by far his strongest. While the later Granamyr episodes were good in their own right, in some ways they detracted from the majestical appearance we see here - especially bearing in mind his parting warning to never be disturbed again.

While characters created for some episodes feel that they were simply created as plot devices, Granamyr (and Skytree) really feel as if they have a history to them that goes back hundreds of years.

The only thing about the episode that didn't feel right was the final scene, with Man-At-Arms suddenly back to normal. The scene felt a bit rushed, and the music playing behind it (the main theme) didn't suit the scene at all. But that's the only tiny niggle with an otherwise excellent episode.

The story was later adapted into a mini-comic, which was fairly good in its own right, but didn't really do the terrific TV episode justice.

Overall, 10 out of 10.

(And I'd just finished typing out my review for this episode and my computer decided to crash, so I had to type the whole thing out again, grr! Just thought I'd share that with you!)

[Skeletor-81]

I can't really give a review without repeating everything Spacedust just posted. I also give this one a 10! It has always been one of my favorites.

[Broadsword]

I loved this episode but poor old Granamyr, I think he could have used a better design. His little Viking helmet and those bandy legs under his pot belly, well that dragon was no Smaug!

[shigsy2003]

Howdy

Well this is a sort of landmark in the Classic MOTU series.

We start of with Skeleto...sorry Therin (I think) from the village of Eastfen offering King Randor a gift...him responding to it quite vain as well "its magnificent". Anyway so yeah Man-at-Arms some how realises that this character is Skeletor must have been the bones..only skeletor would have bones on a sword anyway... and grabs the head and turns into crystal...."Father" screams Teela in disgust. While the Weird-of crystal (weird name) was meant for Randor Skeletor is quite content in it having disabled Man-at-Arms and after a short fight between him, Teela and He-Man he jogs on to Snake Mountain.

In desperation the King suggests the Sorceress maybe able to help (very odd) and so He-Man, Teela and the Crystal-at-Arms go to Castle Grayskull. the Sorceress says that she cannot do anything for him and after contradicting He-Man she suggests that there maybe one who knows the answer "Granamyr" the oldest and wisets of the Dragon's of Draksmoke. Where are these Dragon's located? Unfortunalty the Sorceress cannot say having made a pact with them so Teela has a little outburst. The Sorcerss (who tells them she will guard Duncan) then says "where magc fails human knowledge may succeed" so instead of them figuring out what that means she teleports them to the library. After a few hours He-Man cracks it and they of to the Ice Mountains.

This being He-Man though nothing is easy and after a cool scene they crash. He-Man, Teela and Battlecat then have to walk it since the Wind Raider is no more. Afer a little trekking, sped up walking and comedy ("go cat"...."trouble He-Man were on a cliff ) oh and ofcourse fighting with Ice Hackers the three of them are nearly there. There is a little scuff with the Ice Trolls but as with all enemies on Eternia they are rather incompetant.

Finally they are at the door'sof Granamyr's home, after rudely just opening the doors instead of knocking He-Man shouts the Dragon's name. Granamyr appears in all his motor bike helmet wearing form and roars with his lips actually saying "who dares call my name". END OF ACT ONE

ACT TWO: He-Man calls his name and after a bit of banter and a mysodginistic comment to Teela Granamyr shows, you ain't beating me in a fight puny man, after He-Man struggles to get free Granamyr thinks "hey you have courage and so forth I hain't seen that in awhile, I give you permission to speak". After telling him what went down at the palace He-Man and Teela await the Dragon's response. After a deal of cutting down Sky Tree He-Man, Teela and B/C are teleported to a forest that I have forgotten the name of. After meeting and tricking a little Treeprachaun called Tulamore they find Sky Tree and He-Man has a change of heart. Sky Tree has a little chat...he knew a Man-at-Arms, Witches of Fire etc etc. He-Man,Teela and B/C return to the Dragon who is happy that He-Man didn't cut down the tree after being threatened to be transported to the realm of Demons. Granamyr then says "compasion, strength and the honourung of a bargain, who would have though humankind could have changed so much in a thousand years? I accept this gift He-Man". So the Dragon gives them what they need to help Crystal-at-Arms and all is well again.

Fantastic ep, phenominal writing and the intro to the best secondary character in Eternia

Chris M

[Mike Bock]

This is episode rocks big time it's perfect! 10+++

[carlo]

"The Dragon's Gift" is one of the VERY BEST episodes of the entire classic show's run. (How on Earth it didn't make it onto the '10 Best' DVD, but rubbish like "Quest for He-Man" did, I'll never know!)

oh man,

don't even get me started..oh well you just did..

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...7&postcount=42

Coming from Larry DiTillio it should be good - and he doesn't disappoint. I'd personally rank it as his single best written episode of MOTU

Agreed!

plus house of shokoti 2 parter!

[Lion_Heart]

This would have to be the best ep in season 1 what a great action packed ep this and Masks Of Power are my top 2 eps for the season!