I Think You Mean Princess

Why was nobody in Eternia ever offended that Prince Adam invariably ran away at the first sign of trouble?

Well, he WAS the prince.  It should be their job to keep him safe or something.

We'll go ahead and call this another case of the internets ruining an important part of my childhood.  It should come as no surprise that I enjoyed the occasional cartoon while growing up.  Some of these cartoons were significantly better and more influential than others.  For example, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, and the Transformers were in the uppermost tier of cartoonage, but also somewhere farther down the list are lesser shows like Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears and The Real Ghostbusters.  I'm okay with this.  

I enjoyed watching these shows as well, but like a meal at Taco Bell, it's gone just about as quickly as it arrives, and I remember virtually nothing about the episodes or storylines.  I'm okay with this as well.  However, thanks to the magic of the internets, some of these shows are now completely accessible to me once again for me to look back on what I thought was at least decent entertainment and marvel at what an idiot I must have been for liking this crap.  On a whim, I took it upon myself to re-watch an old episode of the cartoon "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."  We'll go ahead and chalk this up as "Mistake #1."  I used to actually like this show for some unknown reason, and looking back on it now, I wish I hadn't looked back on it.  

 So, the basic premise of the show is that this chump "Prince Adam" turns into superhero "He-Man" when he channels the power from the Sword of Castle Greyskull.  Castle Greyskull is a remarkably dreary place with a skull for a main entrance, so why he didn't move to a nicer place is beyond me.  He becomes He-Man every time somebody threatens to take over Castle Greyskull, because the bad guys really like it too because they also have no exterior decorating taste.  Here's the problem...He-Man as an alter ego is a secret that nobody else in Castle Greyskull knows about, so every time He-Man shows up, Prince Adam has "mysteriously" gone missing.  Sure, people ask about his whereabouts...he is the prince after all...but He-Man summarily dismisses the topic by saying something like, "Oh, don't worry...he's safe," and nobody gives it a second thought.  After the bad guys are vanquished, He-Man "mysteriously" disappears, and Prince Adam comes back, leaving everybody wishing they could thank He-Man for saving the day.  Prince Adam offers to send their well-wishes along, and again, nobody bats an eyelash.  

So let's forget the fact that the people of Eternia are complete imbeciles for protecting some dumpy, run-down, pile-of-rocks castle (thought apparently, it contains "secrets") and not being able to figure out the worst kept secret identity since Clark Kent put on a pair of glasses, and let's think about how their heroic prince runs away as soon as bad guys show up.  To people who don't know his secret alter-ego, it would appear as if he desserts the castle right before every single fight, hoping that He-Man will know enough to show up and deal with the problem for him.  Doesn't sound like a very good prince to me.