We take a little break from Adora’s conflict with Glimmer to focus on She-ra’s “destiny.”.

We finally discover what Razz’s deal is. And since this episode relies a lot on sudden changes of scene, expect a lot of screenshots.

Razz: Today is an important day! We have to get ready for our guest! Perfect. Oh, Adora, you’re just in time!

Mara: Razz, I told you before. My name isn’t Adora. It’s Mara.

Razz: Yes, yes, of course you’re Mara! Who else would you be? Now come on, silly, we don’t have much time. Today is a very important day.

Mara: Why is today important, Razz?

Razz: Because…because…because today we are making a pie! Don’t you remember? You promised!

Mara: That sounds great, Razz, but I can’t stay long today.

Razz: Ah, nonsense, dearie! Now will you help Madame Razz find her rolling pin? Must be around here somewhere.

Adora: Madame Razz?

Razz: Mara?

Adora: Oh, Razz! It’s you! I finally found you.

Razz: Eh, if you say so, Mara. Now come on! It’s getting so late.

It soon becomes clear that, while Razz might sometimes simply be lost in memory, she’s also actually switching between time periods (as evidenced by Mara interacting with Horde gear in her house, which wouldn’t be present in Etheria until much closer to Adora’s time). Perhaps it has something to do with being caught up in a portal dimension TWICE, or maybe that’s just her nature. And of course, that’s why she so often confuses Mara and Adora.

Adora: I’m not Mara! It doesn’t matter. Razz, you have to help me! Everything is falling apart, the Rebellion is losing worse than ever, and Glimmer…I need to find another way to help the Rebellion. I know we can still win this! There was something Mara said in her message, she talked about some kind of weapon. You do know something! If there’s some kind of First Ones weapon out there, you need to tell me! We could use it to defeat the Horde and free Etheria! And then Glimmer would finally see that she was wrong about- what was that for?

Razz: You need to stop being so forgetful, Mara! We’re making pie today with Swift Wind.

Adora: Once again, I am Adora, and Swift Wind isn’t even-

Adora: Swift Wind, what are you doing here?

Swift Wind: Oh, I visit Razz all the time! You gotta check up on old ladies alone in the woods. Come on, Adora, have a heart!

Adora asks Swift Wind to help her talk to Razz about Mara’s weapon (and mentions that Bow’s working on Mara’s ship), but to no avail.

Adora: Razz, you knew Mara. Did she ever tell you- what are you looking for?

Razz: Sugar for the pie! I must have some around here somewhere. Never mind! I know where we can get more! Come, dearie, not a moment to waste! Let’s go!

Adora: Apparently, we’re making pie.

But as Adora doesn’t really have any other leads, she follows Razz.

Swift Wind: Adora, as your noble steed, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Razz is kinda…

Razz: Ha! Have to get up earlier than that to trick me, Loo-kee!

Swift Wind: Well, you know, she’s, uh, she’s Razz! Do you really think she knows anything?

Adora: Madame Razz always shows up exactly when I need her most. She helped save you, and she helped stop the portal…she knows more than she lets on. There is a method to this, I just have to figure it out.

Swift Wind: Is losing her part of the method?

Adora: Razz? Razz? Razz?

Razz: Adora, there’s not much time! You need to keep up. Where are you?

Mara: Who are you? How did you find this place?

Razz: Ah, Mara, dearie, there you are! Madame Razz wondered where you went.

Mara: H-how do you know my name?

Razz: Oh! Is this the first time? It’s been so long since it was the first time. Never mind! Razz is only here to borrow some sugar.

This line seems to indicate that there’s some sort of time loop, too, but as this is pretty much the last episode featuring Razz, it never gets elaborated further.

Anyhow, Razz walks just onto the ship (as she’s clearly been aboard “before”, in some sense). And then she catches Mara’s attention by levitating something into her hand.

Then Light Hope shows up to spoil the fun (because she’s on She-ra’s ship, too).

Light Hope: Mara, who is this person?

Mara: I don’t know. She just wandered in.

Razz: Do you see the ghost, too?

Light Hope: Her presence is unauthorized. You must remove her from the premises, or I will be forced to alert your superiors.

Razz: Your ghost is mean.

Mara: What are you looking for?

Razz: Sugar! How can Madame Razz make a pie without sugar? Don’t ask such silly questions, Adora.

Mara: Adora? Razz, is it? Alright, here you go. Sugar.

Razz: Ah! Thank you, dearie.

Light Hope: You cannot let her take things and leave. She could’ve been exposed to classified data about the Heart of Etheria project. We need to detain and interrogate her.

Mara: You really think she somehow found information about a project so classified, even I don’t know all the details? Come on, Hope, look at her! She’s clearly harmless. Besides, we’re here to study this planet’s magic, aren’t we? Who’d know more about Etheria’s magic than the Etherians?

Light Hope: You know I have to report this. It is in my programming.

Mara: Can’t you let it slide? Please, Hope? For me?

Light Hope: Unauthorized presence…not detected. Any reports to the contrary are incorrect.

Mara: Thanks, Hope. Couldn’t ask for a better friend!

Light Hope: Friend.

Of course, Razz is much more intelligent than she seems at first glance (in this episode in particular, one can’t help but be reminded of Yoda), and her time travelling (?) just makes her look scatterbrained. After all, canonically, she’s over a thousand years old!

It seems as if that last scene was only a memory, as Razz doesn’t seem to have the sugar anymore…

Adora: It’s a First Ones ruin. I told you Razz was taking me somewhere! These marks were made with a sword. Mara’s sword. She was here. She did this.

Swift Wind: Wow. Mara did this? She really was crazy.

Then Razz finds some sugar, and Adora picks up a data crystal that was in Mara’s ship in the previous scene…

Adora: Razz, this was left deliberately. Did it belong to Mara?

Razz: Oh, yes, dearie! She left it for you. She wants to talk to you.

Adora: What?

Razz: Come on, slowpoke! Help an old lady pick some berries.

Adora: Razz, Mara’s gone! She’s been gone for a thousand years!

Razz: Hm? Oh, that doesn’t sound right. She’s helping me make a pie today. She promised, you know.

Adora: No, I’m helping you make a pie!

Razz: Yes, that’s what I said.

Adora: Razz, why is today the day we have to make pie?

Razz: Because today is important!

Adora: But why is it important?

Razz: Eh, it’s important because, uh- oh! Because I have to duck!

Then she seems to be drawn into another memory, wherein a giant boar-type critter nearly runs her over.

And naturally, Mara steps in to protect her.

I love how her movements are so distinct from Adora’s She-ra – she’s much more nimble and acrobatic. But in the end, Razz protects her instead.

Razz: Mara, no! Stop! It’s alright. Nobody here to hurt you.

This is very similar to a shot from Princess Mononoke, because of course we had to get in a Ghibli reference somewhere.

Mara: Go now. Be at peace. Razz? I’m sorry, I thought it was gonna hurt you.

Razz: That’s alright, dearie. Come here.

Mara: How am I doing this? How is this possible without the sword?

Razz: She-ra is not a sword! She-ra is you! Etheria chose you.

Mara: But my people chose me to be She-ra. I need the sword to control She-ra’s magic. That’s what my superiors always told me.

Razz: Ha! She-ra was here long before your people arrived. You cannot control magic! Magic simply is.

Mara: I love Etheria. I love how old and weird and beautiful it is. I’m sworn to protect it as She-ra, just as I’m sworn to serve my people, but I know we’re doing something to the planet. The Heart of Etheria project…I don’t know all the details, but I know it’s big. They say we’re the heroes, but I don’t know if it’s right.

Razz: She-ra protects Etheria. Your people made the sword, but they did not make She-ra.

Adora: What people? Are you talking about the First Ones?

Razz: The sword…Mara…she said she would come back. She promised. We were going to make the pie. I’ve been waiting for so long.

Adora: Mara…she was here, too, wasn’t she? Everything we’re doing, the berries, the sugar, making the pie, it helps you remember.

Razz: Oh, Mara, you were never supposed to succeed. They made a plan for you! Razz could not do anything to help. I am sorry.

Adora: Then help me, Adora, not Mara.

Razz: Adora? Yes! Mara wanted me to warn Adora! There is a great evil at the heart of Etheria, Adora, and it is waking up again! You need to talk to Mara! it’s getting late. We have to hurry. We have to put the pie in!

Adora: Okay, Razz, what was it you were just saying about the evil at the heart of Etheria?

Razz: Eh? Doesn’t ring a bell.

Adora: What’s at the heart of Etheria? Light Hope said Mara snapped, but there’s gotta be more to it than that. There was a reason why she broke everything, why she put us in Despondos. She was afraid of something. Was…was she afraid of the sword, somehow? Of being She-ra?

Razz: Oh, no time! There’s no time.

Adora: Please, Razz, you have to remember something!

Razz: Remember…remember…I try to remember, but it gets all muddled up! Adora, Mara, it always ends the same! The present, the future…

Mara: Razz!

Razz: The past. Mara, dearie, you’re just in time! The pie is almost-

And this is clearly a memory, too, as there’s no pie in the oven here.

Mara: I can’t stay long, Razz.

Razz: Nonsense! I’m making pie today! Or have you forgotten? And they say my memory is bad.

Mara: Razz, listen. I figured out what my people are doing with the Heart of Etheria, what they’ve done to the planet. It’s going to activate soon, there’s no time. I have to get to my ship. It’s starting.

Razz: But the pie!

Mara: Tomorrow, Razz. We’ll make a pie tomorrow. I promise. I can’t stop it. But I can keep them from hurting anyone else.

Razz: Mara!

this show

And when the pie is finished, Razz goes to take it somewhere (and of course, Adora and Swift Wind follow).

It turns out she’s taking it to Mara’s ship…despite the fact that she shouldn’t know where it is now.

Razz: Adora, help me find Mara! You know where she is.

Bow: Adora, who’s that lady?

Adora: It’s okay, it’s just Razz.

Bow: Madame Razz?

Razz: Adora! You need to talk to Mara. You have everything you need.

So she places the data crystal back where it belongs, resulting in a fully functional holographic projection for them (and a flashback for the audience).

And Light Hope’s gone all HAL 9000 on Mara.

Light Hope: What are you doing, Mara? You have de-de-destroyed my intraplanetary systems. You are behaving erratically. Where is the sword, Mara?

Mara: The sword is gone. There’s not going to be a She-ra anymore.

Light Hope: It is your destiny to be She-ra.

Mara: She-ra’s destiny was to be a part of your machine. But I won’t ever let you use her again.

Light Hope: The Heart of Etheria has been activated. Your mission will be fulfilled. There will be peace throughout the galaxy. You will be a hero.

Mara: How will destroying worlds bring peace?

Light Hope: You are trying to d-disable me. It will not work. The Heart of Etheria will achieve its function. As will you. You are She-ra. This is your destiny.

Mara: You’re not Light Hope.

Light Hope: I am the same basic operating system.

Mara: You’re not her! And you don’t get to tell me what my destiny is.

Then she shuts off Light Hope and opens the portal into Despondos.

Mara: Adora? I know you’re there. Razz said you would be there.

And now we get to the message from last season, but now in its entirety.

Mara: I don’t have much time. I barely made it out. If you are seeing this, it means you are the new She-ra. It means I failed. I don’t know what they told you, but it wasn’t all bad at first. We were the first ones to settle Etheria, to really study this planet’s magic. How could it go so wrong? You can’t trust Light Hope. She’s been reprogrammed to set off the weapon at any cost! The weapon…

Adora: The weapon! What is it?

Mara: I didn’t know what they were doing until too late. I knew they were rerouting Etheria’s magic for their own purposes, siphoning it, collecting it in the planet’s core.

Adora: The Heart of Etheria.

Mara: The Heart of Etheria project. It was supposed to be an energy source, capable of so much good! But that’s not what they made. My people turned our planet, all of Etheria, into a weapon. And She-ra is the key.

Adora: What?

Mara: I opened a portal to a completely empty dimension and pulled Etheria in. I hid us from the rest of the universe, to keep everyone safe. This is the one place they’ll never find us. The weapon can’t hurt anyone else here. I saw what they would do, the deaths that would follow. I couldn’t stop them before, but I can now. Hiding is our only option. Adora, this isn’t over. The Heart of Etheria is still siphoning magic, storing it. It’s unstable, it will tear Etheria apart if it goes off again. So it’s up to you now. I couldn’t stop it, in the end I wasn’t strong enough. But you? Adora, you will be more powerful than they ever planned. Adora, I believe in you. You can save the world we love.

Adora: The weapon. The weapon is Etheria. And Mara sacrificed herself to save everyone.

yet another one of those stories where knowing how it ends doesn’t help the feels

But to sum up the relevant plot details, the First Ones were siphoning magic from Etheria into the center of the planet (the Heart of Etheria), claiming (at least to Mara) that it was meant to be an energy source. But whether or not that was ever truly the intention, they ultimately chose to weaponize it, and to that end, Light Hope was reprogrammed to prioritize setting off the weapon above all else (which explains why she was so different for Mara than for Adora). Knowing that She-ra was the key to this weapon, Mara did her best to ensure that there would never be another…but we all know how that ended. Also, the weapon nearly destroyed Etheria in Mara’s time, and there’s a lot more energy in the Heart of Etheria now.

Razz: She was brave, my Mara. For you, Mara dearie.

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Briefly, I must applaud the score for this episode, as well as the writers, Stevenson and Cambell, for making me tear up.

Until next time…