Speaking of media analysis and cartoons with powerful messages, the other half of my soul at Queer Craft wrote a heartfelt review of the reboot of the 80's cartoon, She-ra and the Princesses of Power. Check out their other queer film reviews on their site!
She-ra and the Princesses of Power is 2018 reboot of the 1980’s cartoon She-ra: Princess of Power. The reboot was created by N.D. Stevenson and ran for five seasons on Netflix, ending in 2021. The story focuses on Adora as she becomes the Princess of Power and fights alongside her friends to take back their planet from Adora’s former best friend Catra and the evil Horde. The show tells a tight and complete story across its seasons incorporating themes of abuse, imperialism, and trauma with excellent character writing and animation throughout.
Full disclosure, this is my favorite show. But it wasn’t always. I actually hated this show when it first came out. I thought it was Netflix’s attempt to capitalize on the early success of Voltron: Legendary Defender, another Netflix reboot of an 80’s cartoon. The Voltron reboot had steadily declined in quality across its seasons despite its strong start. The show was initially marketed towards young boys but gained immense popularity with teenage girls. She-ra felt like an attempt to recreate the initial hype of Voltron, but this time intentionally targeted towards girls.
At the time this show premiered I was in deep denial about my gender identity. I was openly a lesbian but was actively repressing any non-cis feelings. Instead, I opted to live as toxically masculine as possible while proclaiming loudly that I was in fact a woman. In light of this, I was determined to hate She-ra. The show was created by a queer artist, but I was certain it would lack any meaningful queer representation. Kids’ shows at the time would occasionally include a queer moment or two in their finale like The Legend of Korra or Adventure Time, but the rest of the show would be painfully heterosexual. I was sure I would never like something functionally made to please straight women. So naturally I hate-watched all five seasons.
As I’m certain most people know, She-ra is not a show just for straight women. It’s a beautiful story about overcoming abuse and learning that you are worthy of love. It’s one of the few shows that gets better every season. By the time season five came out, I was out. Openly walking around with a new name and pronouns, finally starting to view the world with my own eyes rather than the eyes of a person I was expected to be. The final season was streaming and I was ready to stop hate-watching and just start watching it. Season five is the absolute peak of the show. It’s truly incredible. Every character gets an arc and is meaningfully changed from season one. There is so much queer representation throughout including bisexuality, non-binary identity, and general gayness. It also executes the best redemption arc I’ve seen since Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
She-ra and the Princesses of Power is a show I was determined to hate and it’s so good, that I just couldn’t. I love this show so much I got a piece of it tattooed on my body. If you haven’t seen it and you have any interest in queer storytelling or animation, definitely give it a watch. It just might surprise you.
Drawing by creator N.D. Stevenson
Queer Craft and Film reviews is an artistic combination of film review and analysis, and creative craftiness inspired by the content. If you're looking for good queer movie recommendations and original knit and crochet patterns, check them out!
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