The Huntsman

The Huntsman is the 63rd episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, written by Larry DiTillio and directed by Lou Zukor. The Sylani seek help protecting Eternia's only remaining unicorn from a ruthless hunter, who will do anything to eliminate Prince Adam and Teela's interference.

Synopsis
While being visited by Prince Adam, Teela, and Cringer, the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull receives a call from the Sylani, who ask for help protecting the last unicorn on Eternia from Baron Grod. Teela is livid when she learns that the baron plans to hunt a creature that will soon be extinct, but Adam and the Sorceress remind her that there are no laws against hunting and encourage her to be diplomatic, which will make the baron more likely to listen to them.

Adam, Teela, and Cringer take the Wind Raider to Baron Grod's fortress, where they find him shooting his crossbow on the practice range. He introduces them to his mechanical dog Growler (who frightens Cringer) and invites them into his fortress, where he shows them the vast number of creatures he's caught and preserved by freezing them in stasis. Teela is barely able to keep her cool while talking to him, but the baron refuses to listen to both her bravado and Adam's more reasoned arguments against hunting the unicorn, insisting that it will stay safe and well-protected forever in his fortress. Unable to talk him out of hunting the unicorn, they tell him that they will go to the Royal Palace and appeal to King Randor to stop the hunt from taking place.

After his visitors leave, Baron Grod contacts Gamrak, the leader of a tribe of mountain ogres, and agrees to pay him double the usual price if he can prevent Prince Adam and Teela from reaching the Royal Palace. Gamrak agrees, then uses a tractor beam to bring down the Wind Raider and takes the captives deep into his caves. He plans to enslave them, but Teela buys them time to flee by kicking over a brazier. Cringer fetches the Power Sword, which Adam uses to transform himself into He-Man and Cringer into Battle Cat once they're far away from both the ogres and Teela. He-Man then immobilizes the pursuing ogres with stalactites and goes looking for Teela, who he catches as a fallen tree she is using to cross a chasm breaks in half. They manage to escape from the cave, and He-Man blocks off the entrance to prevent Gamrak and his ogres from following them. They then return to the Wind Raider and fly off to find Baron Grod.

Meanwhile, Baron Grod and Growler are tracking the unicorn, but the Sylani stall them by enlarging Growler's extendable nose and some fruits, which then fall on their heads. Growler hits the faeries with stun beams from its eyes, and the baron catches them in a bag that he leaves tied to a tree branch. Soon after, he finds the unicorn and binds it with a special crossbow attachment. He-Man finds and frees the Sylani, but arrives too late to stop the baron from flying away with his new trophy.

He-Man, Teela, Battle Cat, and the Sylani follow Baron Grod's Basher back to his fortress and break in to free the unicorn. Battle Cat smashes Growler to pieces when it attacks them, and He-Man destroys Baron Grod's crossbow with his sword. The baron, however, is still determined to protect his prize, and uses a lens-like device to remove one of his trophies - an apelike creature with tendrils for arms - from stasis. It catches He-Man in its tendrils, but as the baron prepares to remove another creature from stasis, the Sylani redirect his shot into a horned, catlike predator right next to him, which chases him as he flees. He-Man breaks free from the creature's tendrils and wraps them around Baron Grod's throne, then chases after the baron with Teela. They find him cornered by the predator, but Teela freezes it in midair with her freeze-ray as it pounces at him. She and He-Man then ask him how it feels to be chased and trapped and urge him to think about the feelings of the animals he hunts. Baron Grod, overcome with a new sense of compassion for the creatures he has kept as trophies, decides to release both the unicorn and all of his other captured animals.

Back at the Royal Palace, Prince Adam and Teela tell King Randor about their encounter with Baron Grod and ask for his help to spread the message. The king agrees, and makes a royal decree that it will hereafter be illegal to hunt animals for sport on Eternia.

Moral
Teela: "In today's story I was very angry at Baron Grod. I was supposed to try and talk him out of hunting the unicorn, but I kept losing my temper. And when you lose your temper, you can't think clearly. We all get angry at times but we should learn to control our tempers. It's better to stay cool and talk things out reasonably. Now it's not always easy, but it's usually the best way to solve any problem. Until next time, bye."

Heroic Warriors

 * Prince Adam
 * Battle Cat
 * Cringer
 * He-Man
 * Teela

Allies

 * Queen Marlena
 * King Randor
 * Sorceress
 * Sylani

Evil Warriors

 * Skeletor (mentioned)

Villains

 * Baron Grod
 * Gamrak
 * Growler
 * Ogres

Locations

 * Castle Grayskull
 * Eternos - Royal Palace
 * Mystic Mountains
 * Whispering Valley

Vehicles

 * Basher
 * Wind Raider

Creatures

 * Bigtooth Furlon
 * Squigilla
 * Unicorns

Artifacts

 * Window of the Spirits

Cast

 * John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam and Gamrak
 * Alan Oppenheimer as Baron Grod and Battle Cat/Cringer
 * Linda Gary as Teela, the Sorceress and Sylani
 * Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as King Randor, Sylani and Castle Guard

Behind the Scenes

 * Script was approved June 6, 1983 and final script revision took place July 12, 1983.
 * In the storyboards, Growler is not a robotic dog but drawn to resemble one of Zalt's Mechacats from Orko's Missing Magic.
 * The script identifies the ape-like creature with tentacles and a parrot beak as a Squigilla.

Continuity

 * Baron Grod's character model is a reused and recolored version of Danavas from Valley of Power.
 * Grod's castle was used previously as Skeletor's fortress in The Time Corridor.
 * The background used as Baron Grod's throne room is reused as King Paw's throne room in The Cat and the Spider.
 * The comical sequence in which Cringer tries to hide around a corner during the transformation sequence was first used by writer Larry DiTillio in The Dragon's Gift.
 * The animated sequence of Cringer trying to hide behind Prince Adam was animated by Tom Sito and would be used again in The Gamesman.
 * Baron Grod uses Skeletor's Basher vehicle to catch the unicorn.
 * A group of Orks is seen running through the underground caves inhabited by the Ogres.
 * The animated sequence of the Orc leaping towards out to attack will be seen again in Just a Little Lie.

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