She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Most audiences are familiar with He-Man through the very popular 1980s animated series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but it’s hard to tell if people would know who She-Ra was. It’s easy to surmises that she was a female counterpoint to He-Man and even received her own animated series in the 80s also created by the same production company, Filmation, but since He-Man was solely created to sell merchandise, this literal sister series wasn’t expected to do much besides cater to women. This makes it so hilarious that years down the line, while He-Man has remained in public awareness yet hasn’t been able to click with a new release, She-Ra has become the dominant sibling with her 2018 DreamWorks series released on Netflix, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Met with great reviews which praised how it updated from a shallow merchandised-focused spin-off into a proper fantasy adventure series dripping with rich characters, complex storylines and relevant themes and topics, it feels like now, She-Ra is the one that holds all the power.

On the planet of Etheria where a war is waging between the inhabiting magical princesses and the evil horde army led by the tyrannical despot, Lord Hordak (voiced by Keston John), a young solider named Adora (voiced by Aimee Carrero) is excited to fulfil her duties for the horde, but after a mission goes haywire, she finds herself coming across a magical sword in the middle of the woods that grants her the powers of She-Ra, a magical princess capable of extreme power. After encountering a princess named Glimmer (voiced by Karen Fukuhara) and her marksman friend named Bow (voiced by Marcus Scribner) who inform her of the horrors the horde have inflicted on their planet, Adora realizes she’s on the wrong side and joins the rebellion, which leads to her abandoning her long-time childhood friend, Catra (voiced by AJ Michalka), who (in the hopes of blocking the pain felt from this betrayal) pushes herself further and further into villainy in order to enact vengeance on her once best friend. As more friends and foes introduce themselves as the two sides continue to wage war, truths are discovered about She-Ra and what her purpose is after learning about a former She-Ra named Mara (voiced by Zehra Fazal), personal traumas cause many of the characters to make rash decisions that taint their morality, and all this chaos causes the planet to ignore the ever-looming and fast approaching threat of an immortal cosmic conqueror known as Horde Prime (also voiced by Keston John) who plans to eradicate Etheria once and for all.

Often compared to other trailblazing shows like Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power took from a show that had little to work with and birthed a fantasy series that is still held in high regard to this day for its incredibly charming cast, great music, captivating narrative, and extreme levels of diversity and nuance character writing. While lesser than the shows that inspired it, She-Ra has grown far beyond its shallow originator and is worthy of the powerful respect it has gotten.

Created by ND Stevenson (who went by Noelle Stevenson at the time), a cartoonist known for being a co-writer on the comic series, Lumberjanes, and for creating the graphic novel, Nimona, the initial pitch for the show was originally going to just be a single season, but after the initial success of said season on Netflix, it spanned into something much bigger, larger and more expansive, lasting five seasons in total and offering an extremely elevated take on what the original series was doing. While both shows are focused on She-Ra and her band of rebels fighting against Catra, Hordak and other evil villains, the levels of depth, character, animation effort, and storytelling couldn’t be more different, with this show taking a very basic ‘’good-versus-evil’’ tale set in a seemingly familiar fantasy setting, and transforming it into a battle between the freedom and ever-changing aspect of natural love and emotions, and the clinical hollowness and stagnation of blind obedience and lack of personhood. The first season is serialized and can come across as a bit tropey and generic, but as the show keeps going, everything starts to come together more naturally, and the strengths of the writing team, animators, musical composers, and actors all become apparent and deserving of praise. With each season’s episode limit not exceeding beyond 15 episodes and all being around 20 – 30 mins in length, it allows for quick viewing experiences that still manage to pack in a lot of character, worldbuilding, and reoccurring themes and motifs that help make this environment and narrative feel bigger than it arguably needed to be. It doesn’t always have time to fill in every necessary gap left by some unresolved plot and character threads (it arguably could’ve used one final epilogue to settle things by the end), but the whole package does provide a lot of good.

On top of just the cool factor of seeing a spin-off originally meant solely to sell toys being treated with respect and effort in a remake, taking these simple concepts, characters and scenarios and weaving them into something more dramatic, heartfelt, and impactful, explains how they’ve managed to create such a large fanbase, and much like how DreamWorks previously succeeded with remaking the classic Japanese animated series, Voltron, with similar levels of effort, updated characters and storytelling, and diversity (also done with Netflix titled Voltron: Legendary Defender), it seemed like a niche the two studios performed very well in. Being a show mainly run by the emotions of the characters and their personal struggles, the story in question can take a backseat to them in exchange for just steadily leading towards a specific end goal, and even for a show with limited episodes, there can still be filler that isn’t always that interesting and occasionally house loud and basic humor, but this is a problem that is fixed as the show progresses, with season 4 and especially 5 managing to click on every aspect and closing the show on a fantastic note.

She-Ra is a great show for many reasons, but the best is its characters, how they’re designed, how they’re voiced and how they’re used in the story. The show was heavily praised for its strong levels of diversity and inclusivity, with every character being very uniquely drawn and animated with different proportions and ethnicities, as well as being extremely fluid in terms of sexuality and gender (almost every character in the show is some level of queer). This thankfully expands their potential rather than reduces them to tropes, with most if not all of them having some level of memorability or charm. The best characters in the show are Adora and Catra, with their dynamic being universally praised for its nuance (especially Catra’s romantic feelings for Adora alongside their shared traumatic past opening a gigantic can of worms), and both are used phenomenally in the story. Adora’s journey of trying to earn self-worth after being used as a tool by the enemy only to learn her new magical destiny is also another shackle is very compelling, and Catra’s spiral into evil to repress the pain from losing her only positive connection in a very tormented life is extremely juicy to witness, all made better by Aimee Carrero and AJ Michalka’s really good voice acting.

While the leads are the best part of the show, their supporting cast are also pretty colorful (both in look and in character) and nicely round out this show and further shade what looks like a clean-cut situation by offering enemies who prove to be quite friendly and nurturing, and friends who can take part in some pretty cold actions for the sake of good. Glimmer is quite a strong character, an abrasive yet sheltered princess forced to take on the responsibility of her planet who goes to extreme lengths when fighting off the threat, and Bow is a great level-headed emotional center for this adorable friendship trio. While most of the princesses are only two-dimensional despite having good designs and fun voice acting, some like the burly yet extremely sweet Scorpia (voiced by Lauren Ash) and the tech-obsessed Entrapta (voiced by Christine Woods) have enough complexity and plot relevance to shine pretty brightly, Adora and Catra’s abusive adoptive mage mother, Shadow Weaver (voiced by Lorraine Toussaint) is deliciously complex and is pretty easy to dislike yet remains extremely captivating throughout, and while Hordak is a fairly standard angry villainous threat who does get more complicated as the plot progresses, Horde Prime is an incredible villain who really caps the series off on a strong note. Not all the characters are incredible (there’s a particularly annoying talking flying unicorn), but this is a pretty great cast.

As a Netflix project and being traditionally animated by South Korean studio, NE4U, She Ra and the Princesses of Power has a very nice look to it that holds onto the 80s vibe and color palette of the original show but updates it to have a more contemporary feel while still offering a distinct visual identity. The world of Etheria is a very natural, colorful and magical looking location that contrasts very nicely with the Horde’s industrial vibe and sterile yet aggressive buildings and transportation. While the initial seasons would occasionally feature an awkward drawing and a weird bit of framing, the visuals would come into their own by the later seasons, never have a dip in quality, and really excel with the colors and flashy set pieces. The music is also quite good and plays a crucial role in building up the characters, the world and the story, with reoccurring motifs and an 80s-inspired sound composed by Sunna Wehrmeijer, that can range from incredibly catchy, very intimidating, and even pretty dramatic when it needs to be, it hits all the right areas and brings a beautiful sound to this world and series.

She-Ra used to be as much of (if not more of) a laughingstock as her somehow more underdressed brother, but after this show reinvigorated the interest in the franchise and allowed She-Ra the chance to take the spotlight rather than remain a secondary follow-up, it’s now He-Man’s turn to catch up (with his newest movie being his chance to possibly earn some favor back). While riddled with slight imperfections that prevent a wholly picturesque package, much like the show preaches, these minor faults aren’t enough to sully the glowing positives that radiate from this well-meaning, expressive, charming, and all-around engaging series. The story does go at a slow pace, but is intriguing when dived into, the characters are very entertaining (especially the four leads), the animation improves over time, the music is memorable, and the amount of diversity and LGBTQIA+ representation present really propels its material to new heights. Not the perfect warrior, but a strong one.