FA+
Shop
Everything I Wanted: A Spoileriffic Discussion of She-Ra
5 years ago
General
(Originally posted at gneech.com... http://gneech.com/talk/everything-i.....ion-of-she-ra/ )
The show that asked, “What if Star Wars was incredibly gay?” and then answers, “IT WOULD BE AWESOME AS FUCK!”
There’s so much for me to say about She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I don’t even know where to begin. I already knew, when I was defending Catra as A Cinnamon Roll Who Wants to Kill You that this was a show I was going to be very heavily invested in. Catra literally feels to me like Noelle Stevenson plucked her right out of my brain and put her on the screen—to the point that I wrote to Ms. Stevenson directly and leveraged all of my comics/animation contacts into trying to find a way to get onto the writing team… without success, alas.
Catra would look at Leona Lioness or Tanya Regellan and say “Oh, you too?” She is also directly the inspiration for Shade-Of-the-Candle, whose own transition from snarling murdercat to laughing bandit has parallels to the arc Catra actually follows. As Emmet Asher-Perrin so aptly put it, “Catra was an instant favorite on the show among its fans. But there was something about it that nagged at me, something more specifically related to her type, and what that type said about me, and what it meant that I kept returning to it.”
And I’m not gonna lie, I was scared for Catra. With every season ending with her in a worse place than the last one, and knowing in very personal detail exactly the self-destructive cycles she was going through, I was terrified she was going to go down with the ship. Redemptive Suicide is such a terrible trope, but such a common one in fantasy and SF, that I was at least 65% convinced that was going to be her fate.
(Mere words cannot express how happy I am to read that Shadow Weaver’s final fate was intentionally written as an “Up yours!” at that specific trope.)
I stopped watching the show halfway through season four, because Double Trouble pushed too many of my buttons—I didn’t have it in me to watch these characters I was so fond of just unravel and tear each other apart, and after the end of season three I couldn’t bring myself to watch Catra do any more horrible things without some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. So I suspended my Netflix account and waited. There was no way I wouldn’t watch season five when it came out—but I couldn’t finish until I could actually finish, if that makes any sense.
So… where do I stand, now that the show’s over? Like the title says, it gave me everything I wanted. Catra to have a true redemption. A true, explicit and undeniable romantic relationship between Catra and Adora. Adventure, excitement, and really wild things. Strong characters, deep and compelling villains, beautiful animation. The first ever canonically and unambiguously queer protagonist in mainstream western animation. On some level, I must face that I resent that I couldn’t be part of it. When I knew getting involved in the show wasn’t going to happen, I created The Reclamation Project to redirect that energy, so good has still came of it, but for me She-Ra will never not be “one that got away.” It’s a historic, once-in-a-lifetime event, a revolution that I was only able to watch and not participate in. And there’s nothing I can do about that except get over it.
On the other hand, the sheer joy that S5 has filled me with blots out those dark thoughts. Scorpia going from doormat to utter badass. Entrapta—who I’ve historically been very down on—not just coming to grips with the difference between “people” and “things,” but also giving Catra one of the most understatedly but purely kind moments in Problem Cat’s whole life.
Wrong Hordak. Just freakin’ Wrong Hordak. He’s another character who feels like he was ripped out of my brain.
Catra’s sheer desperation for Adora in the final two episodes—and that Catra’s (requited!) love for Adora literally saved the universe.
I could do this all day. I’ll stop. If you’ve seen the show you know all these things.
What does it mean to me? I don’t know. I know that Suburban Jungle has touched lives—but not on the scale or sheer power that this show has. Is there still something useful for me to do? If so, what? And how do I do it? What can I bring to the table in a world that already has this in it?
I’ll find something.
The show that asked, “What if Star Wars was incredibly gay?” and then answers, “IT WOULD BE AWESOME AS FUCK!”
There’s so much for me to say about She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I don’t even know where to begin. I already knew, when I was defending Catra as A Cinnamon Roll Who Wants to Kill You that this was a show I was going to be very heavily invested in. Catra literally feels to me like Noelle Stevenson plucked her right out of my brain and put her on the screen—to the point that I wrote to Ms. Stevenson directly and leveraged all of my comics/animation contacts into trying to find a way to get onto the writing team… without success, alas.
Catra would look at Leona Lioness or Tanya Regellan and say “Oh, you too?” She is also directly the inspiration for Shade-Of-the-Candle, whose own transition from snarling murdercat to laughing bandit has parallels to the arc Catra actually follows. As Emmet Asher-Perrin so aptly put it, “Catra was an instant favorite on the show among its fans. But there was something about it that nagged at me, something more specifically related to her type, and what that type said about me, and what it meant that I kept returning to it.”
And I’m not gonna lie, I was scared for Catra. With every season ending with her in a worse place than the last one, and knowing in very personal detail exactly the self-destructive cycles she was going through, I was terrified she was going to go down with the ship. Redemptive Suicide is such a terrible trope, but such a common one in fantasy and SF, that I was at least 65% convinced that was going to be her fate.
(Mere words cannot express how happy I am to read that Shadow Weaver’s final fate was intentionally written as an “Up yours!” at that specific trope.)
I stopped watching the show halfway through season four, because Double Trouble pushed too many of my buttons—I didn’t have it in me to watch these characters I was so fond of just unravel and tear each other apart, and after the end of season three I couldn’t bring myself to watch Catra do any more horrible things without some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. So I suspended my Netflix account and waited. There was no way I wouldn’t watch season five when it came out—but I couldn’t finish until I could actually finish, if that makes any sense.
So… where do I stand, now that the show’s over? Like the title says, it gave me everything I wanted. Catra to have a true redemption. A true, explicit and undeniable romantic relationship between Catra and Adora. Adventure, excitement, and really wild things. Strong characters, deep and compelling villains, beautiful animation. The first ever canonically and unambiguously queer protagonist in mainstream western animation. On some level, I must face that I resent that I couldn’t be part of it. When I knew getting involved in the show wasn’t going to happen, I created The Reclamation Project to redirect that energy, so good has still came of it, but for me She-Ra will never not be “one that got away.” It’s a historic, once-in-a-lifetime event, a revolution that I was only able to watch and not participate in. And there’s nothing I can do about that except get over it.
On the other hand, the sheer joy that S5 has filled me with blots out those dark thoughts. Scorpia going from doormat to utter badass. Entrapta—who I’ve historically been very down on—not just coming to grips with the difference between “people” and “things,” but also giving Catra one of the most understatedly but purely kind moments in Problem Cat’s whole life.
Wrong Hordak. Just freakin’ Wrong Hordak. He’s another character who feels like he was ripped out of my brain.
Catra’s sheer desperation for Adora in the final two episodes—and that Catra’s (requited!) love for Adora literally saved the universe.
I could do this all day. I’ll stop. If you’ve seen the show you know all these things.
What does it mean to me? I don’t know. I know that Suburban Jungle has touched lives—but not on the scale or sheer power that this show has. Is there still something useful for me to do? If so, what? And how do I do it? What can I bring to the table in a world that already has this in it?
I’ll find something.
My other wish from them would be an animated Pirates of Dark Water because I would really love a satisfactory ending for it.
I tried to watch Bojack. I lasted until somewhere around season four I think, before I gave up. The way he kept self destructing after every little victory got so tiring I just couldn't keep on watching anymore. I never got hat feeling with Catra, there was always hope there. With Bojack it was the point, but I'm glad Catra's journey was more balanced.
I also really liked the way Shadow Weaver's arc ended. She was always threatening. All the way until the end there was that wonder, what is she plotting? Will she betray the Rebellion? Even that final remark... Did she mean it? Her design was great too. I'm still not sure if she did what she did to help or to fuel her own goals. I honestly think its the latter most likely. And even then, I'm not sure things would have been that bad if that's the case and she was able to reach her goals. I find her fascinating.
And the way everything just kinda came together to work against Prime... Catra, leaving Catra with Adora, abandoning one of his clones and then absorbing that clone back into the Hive Mind and his final role... Hordak is a very interesting character as well. Wrong Hordak shows us one possibility of a clone being teared away from the Hive Mind, he happened to be surrounded by friendly characters at the time. Hordak meanwhile was leading the Horde when he lost the connection, it's fascinating how his character differs from Prime and Wrong Hordak. And I did see chemistry between him and Entrapta as well, so no complains about the ending there too.
Kyle and Rogelio? Why not. Rogelio was definitely very protective of Kyle. I liked Adora's squad mates, that they had their own little episode was great. Loved that. Rogelio was def my favourite. Great design and I liked his grunts instead of talking English.
Also really liked Sea Hawk and Mermista. Sea Hawks character in general, his catchphrase and that they very quickly dropped the arrogant character trope and showed him realizing he was pretty outclassed by everyone else. Being a goofball but an occasionally very useful goofball. Loved his chemistry with Mermista, the fact that she was often so grumpy made the moments where she showed her affection just more special,
Scorpia... I really wished we could have seen more of her with the Rebellion. I had been rooting for her to join the other side for so long, so now it feels that the time she was there was way too short before she was forced back to the Horde. Especially because when she does her personality goes bye bye. Yes, she 's badass, but... Meh. I wanted to see more interactions between her and the others. Although the interactions we did get were great.
Not too sure about Glimmer and Bow. They always seemed to have more of a brother/sister thing going on. I suppose the ending doesn't necessarily mean that they are romantically interested, but it sure seemed that way. That's a nitpick though.
Only things I would complain about are the transformation scene (too overused) and the "Can turn into She-Rah/Can't turn into She-Rah stuff". There seems no rhyme or reason for it. Sometimes saving a friend causes it, sometimes worry for friend blocks it... And it happens I think like 5 or 6 times. It would have been much more impactful if it only happened once.
It's not my favourite animated show on Netflix, but its very high up there. I'm re-watching it now to see the whole story in quick succession.