She-Ra

[jimhines]

I hadn’t originally planned to watch Netflix’s She-Ra reboot. The previews hadn’t really grabbed me, and I don’t really have that much TV time. And then I started hearing about complaints from what I’ll call the Manbaby Corner of the internet, how She-Ra was ruining everything by … I’m not exactly sure … I think it was something about female characters who weren’t all designed for the sexual appreciation of straight men?

Anyway, the Volume of Manbaby Whining (VMW) score has been a reliable way of finding good stuff, so I went ahead and binge-watched She-Ra.

It was delightful.

The show is so unapologetic about presenting girls and women with a range of personalities, bodies, strengths, weaknesses, and powers. Some of the secondary characters might feel a little one-dimensional, in part because there’s a limited amount of screen time to go around, but it works.

Like Steven Universe, the traditional Smurfette Syndrome (one girl in a sea of boys) is pretty much flipped around. The only main male character is Bow … and there are hints that he may be trans. (Cue another round of VMW. Poor guys … wherever will they find representation now?)

My favorite storyline was the relationship between Adora and Catra. Seeing Catra curled up on the foot of Adora’s bed in the beginning, seeing how they watched out for each other … the betrayal Catra felt when Adora left her … the tension between them at Princess Prom…

Then the episode Promise comes along, showing us Catra and Adora as little kids, developing that love and loyalty even more, until Catra finally has to make a choice. Damn, that was powerful and heartbreaking.

(Also, Catra is voiced by AJ Michalka, who is also the voice for Stevonnie on Steven Universe!)

And that’s before you get into things like Swift Wind, the horse revolutionary, or the relationship between Glimmer and her mother, or the delight with which Sea Hawk keeps setting his ships on fire, or Entrapta’s character (who reads to me as possibly being on the autistic spectrum) and her development, or the hug-loving perfection that is Scorpia. As one Twitter user put it…

For those who’ve seen it, what did you think?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Comments

[jcfiala]

I'm slowly watching it with my daughter, who is 7, and we're loving it.

I've heard people complaining that the show isn't made for little girls, but this little girl thinks it's fine. :)

[yeomanrand]

I haven't watched it -- not really my thing -- but I think the best summation of the VMW is that She-Ra is made for girls, but it's not training girls to be eye candy for men.

[muccamukk]

I also got into this show based on VMW, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Have you read Noelle Stevenson's comic Nimona? If you like this, you might like that.

[jimhines]

I have not. Didn't she do Lumberjanes as well, or am I misremembering?

[muccamukk]

She was involved in Lumberjanes, yes, though I haven't read much of that. Nimona started as a webcomic and was eventually published. I love it so much.

[rosefox]

I found it incredibly irritating, with plot holes the Horde could drive a tank through. But I'm glad it's there for people who are loving it!

[solarbird]

Something that struck me really hard:

Random background characters are women.

In a way they aren't, usually. The episode with the dance image you posted - the band (who have no lines and are seen like, once) weren't all guys.

The band are always guys.

As a musician who isn't a guy, it was a moment.

[swan_tower]

I enjoyed it! We'd been watching a episode or two each night, until we watched "Princess Prom," at which point we binged the remainder. Really liked Entrapta, and since I have zero memories of the original show even though I know I owned a pile of the toys, the direction of her story took me by surprise. D-:

I missed the clues that Bow might be trans, though -- what were they? The show as a whole definitely pings queer, so many times in so many places.

[jimhines]

Bow being possibly trans is a theory I've seen popping up online. Here's one example:

"Plus, there are hints that Bow may be transgender. I’m a cisgender woman, but when I watched the show (for the second time) with my non-binary partner, who was watching it for the first time, they commented a few times on Bow’s possible transness — especially in the episode “In the Shadows of Mystacor,” when Bow, Glimmer and Adora all go to the hot springs together. Although it would presumably be acceptable for a cisgender teen boy to go shirtless in the springs, Bow wears a top just like Glimmer and Adora. Specifically, the top looks like it could be a binder or something to mask top surgery scars." (Source")

[swan_tower]

Ah, got it. I did notice that Bow had a top on, but I read it as just because the show trying not to do the nekkid skin eye candy thing.