When Mattel first designed the She-Ra Storyline, Catra was going to be She-Ra's main enemy instead of Hordak. Her base was called CatTower and her sidekicks were going to be Entrapta and Castaspella - yes, Castaspella was going to be evil. However, for the animated series, Filmation changed the story to include the Evil Horde group of villains, who were originally created for the Masters of the Universe toy line.
The Horde Troopers were originally conceived as living beings instead of
robots. This is still evident in "Into Etheria" when they all have distinctly
different voices and one of them is named 'Marg'. The original script went
even further, describing the three Hordesmen in the Inn lifting their visors,
revealing a scarred human (the aforementioned 'Marg'), a reptilian humanoid
(who is still heard emphasizing the letter S and hissing at Bow) and a
humanoid hawk underneath.
Sequences that were cut from the original shooting script:
- Adam and Bow throw cream pies into the faces of two of the Horde Troopers
- Hordak punishes the messenger from Thaymor for bringing him bad news by
- It was supposed to be Scorpia who grabbed Bow from behind at Thaymor instead
- When He-Man goes after Force Captain Adora, Sprag, as promised, helps
- Instead of He-Man being stunned by a Horde Trooper who came up from behind
Sprag uses the Twigget version of a salute: using the tips of his fingers to
toughing the tip of his nose (as opposed to his forehead) after Bow orders
him to run ahead and tell Glimmer he's bringing in new recruits.
The full, original title as seen on the shooting script was "The Sword of
She-Ra Part I: Into Etheria". The unused part of the title is still spoken by
the announcer (Alan Oppenheimer) at the end of the episode as he
introduces some scenes from the second chapter.