I Watched Netflix’s Reboot Of She-Ra And I’m In Love.
This Christmas holiday I found myself rather bored, imprisoned by the mundanity of national lockdown and the inability to go anywhere so as a lot of people nowadays do, I turned to Netflix.
I had seen quite a lot of people on Twitter that I had followed after watching Voltron tweeting about a show called She-ra and the Princesses of Power, and how good it was. The main two characters were also gay.
So, as any other queer people would do at the promise of LGBTQ+ characters, I binge-watched the entire thing, all 5 seasons.
The Plot
I was immediately lured in by the two main characters; Adora, a seemingly human girl, and Catra like the name suggest, a cat-like girl. The two are best friends training to become Force Captains for an organization called the Horde, an oppressive intergalactic empire working to conquer the entire universe.
The two are initially unaware of the larger goal of the Horde, having grown up in their facilities and been taught that they are the ones being oppressed by ‘the Queen and her Princesses’ and that they must defeat her to liberate the land she rules.
This all changes when the two sneak out of the facilities on a Skiff (a floating boat/motorbike) and travel into the Whispering Woods, the only thing that separates them and the Queen’s territory called Brightmoon. They end up crashing the skiff and Adora and Catra are separated.
Upon waking up Adora starts hearing a voice that pulls her to a clearing in the woods and here she finds a sword. She touches it and sees visions almost like a prophecy calling to her and telling her their planet needs a hero. However, before she can hear anymore she is shaken awake by Catra and they make their way back to the Horde.
After returning Adora is still curious about the sword so she sneaks out again, asking Catra to cover for her so she can go and find this mystical sword. Upon finding it, she also finds our two other main characters; Glimmer, the queen’s small but fierce daughter, and Bow, Glimmer’s crop-top-wearing arrow-wielding best friend. Initially, both parties are very cautious of each other, Bow and Glimmer even taking Adora as a prisoner telling her all about the death and destruction the Horde has brought upon many others until they are ambushed by a large monster.
Both Bow and Glimmer try their best to defeat the monster using their powers and Bow’s arrows but it is no use, this is until Adora picks up the sword and swings at it. Upon impact, Adora is given another vision and in it, she is told the ‘magic words’ that will help her transform into the hero she was told about in the prophecies, and sure enough, after uttering the words she transforms into She-Ra.
After putting the monster in a trance with her newly found powers, Glimmer and Bow stand on in shocked silence before Adora turns back and the monster wakes up. They run and are ambushed once more but by a group of Horde soldiers this time, they try to defend the nearby village and amongst the ruckus, Adora runs into Catra who came with the soldiers to look for her, but Adora with a new-found knowledge of how evil the Horde is, refuses to go back and saves Glimmer by turning into She-Ra once more. The soldiers retreat bringing Catra back with them and Glimmer, Bow and Adora make their way to Brightmoon to tell them about She-Ra and how she might be able to save the universe from the Horde.
From here on out, the plot follows a similar route to other shows like it, frequent conflicts between the good guys (being Adora/She-Ra and the Princesses she meets throughout the series) and the bad guys (the Horde, but mostly Catra and her rather butch part scorpion sidekick Scorpia), the villain to good guy character arcs and finally the part where they beat the bad guys and the two main characters kiss.
However, seeing this kind of story being played out by such a diverse range of characters was amazingly refreshing to see, the two main characters being sapphic but that not being their only defining character trait, one of the princesses being both canonically trans and lesbian, one of the (very likable) villains being a non-binary shapeshifter, and the list goes on.
The writer of the show Noelle Stevenson, a queer cartoonist also known for the fantasy comics Nimona, and The Lumberjanes, has been quoted saying ‘assume all my characters are gay, unless stated otherwise’. As someone who is studying media and is also queer, I think this is really important to see as we are so used to seeing just straight characters or characters that are coded to be queer but never officially confirmed to be so in television and other forms of mass media. So to have this show which depicts so many different experiences, be them with gender, sexuality, or both, so casually and non-conforming to the industry's usual drop in gay best friend side-character, is so beautiful to see.
Thankfully we are beginning to see more and more shows especially ones with typically younger audiences like this, some more known examples being; Adventure Time with the confirmation of two of the main characters, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen being in WLW relationship, and Steven Universe in which a range of queer identities and same-sex relationships are shown.
This type of show is also really lovely to see as it provides a sense of childlike escapism for older queer people as well. Having the ability to watch a show, and see people that they can identify with within environments where their identity isn’t the main focus of who their character is, and where prejudices like homophobia and transphobia don’t exist. A fantasy world covered in sparkles and bright colours, totally separate from the usual gloominess and harsh realities shown in media made for and about queer folk in the set in the real world (see: Channel 4’s television drama It’s A Sin, or practically anything written/directed by Ryan Murphy).
So, if you ever find yourself bored and queer with some time to kill, I would definitely recommend She-Ra, if not for the plot, just for the sheer mass of LGBTQ+ characters.
Happy Exploring!
Freya (they/them/any)
