So, I’ve finally completed all seasons of She-ra: Princesses of Power. And I want to share my thoughts.
First off, I feel like most shows with an ensemble cast struggle maintaining an interesting main character. It feels when there are a ton of characters on screen, the main character falls to the wayside. But I actually thought Adora was a fully realized character. I think the show did a good job of characterizing Adora and making her interesting. So, I give major props to the show for that.
I think the best thing about the show is its portrayal of mental health issues. Whether it be Gimmer and her insecurities, or Entrapta and her inability to respond to social cues, or Catra and her abandonment issues, the show does a good job at showing what it’s like to deal with mental health problems. I wish more media did as good of a job.
Speaking of Entrapta, I feel she is probably the most accurate representation of autism in any character I’ve ever seen in any form of media. My sister has autism, and as anybody with autism knows not every person with autism is the same. And while Entrapta doesn’t behave exactly the same as my little sister, it’s good to see actual representation in a cartoon of what a person with autism is like.
I knew going in that Catra was going to be my favorite. And she was. But my second favorite has to be Scorpia.
I wish we got to see more of Bow’s dads.
I thought Shadow Weaver was extremely well written. As I was watching the show, I thought Weaver was gonna do something heinous in season 4 or season 5. That’s why I was stunned when she didn’t. Shadow Weaver rides this fine balance where you don’t like her even though she’s no longer up to her villainous ways. She’s still a bad person, but but the show does an effect job explaining why she is the way she is. In a way, she’s kinda the polar opposite of Catra. Instead of Catra, who wants to put the effort in changing and getting better, Weaver is too stubborn to actually bother changing her ways.
I thought the biggest problem with the show comes in season 5. It seems like a lot of the characters the show had spent time focusing on kind of got forgotten about. Scorpia, Mermista, Kyle and his teammates, they barely got any screen time in season 5. I also really felt until the last few episodes of season 5, Hordak kinda got shortchanged. With the introduction of Wrong Hordak, it felt like the writers forgot about Hordak. And then with the last few episodes, the writers were like “Oh, crap. We need to tie up the lose ends with Hordak.” It almost feels like the introduction of Wrong Hordak was unnecessary and Hordak could’ve just taken his place. Because for about 6 or so episodes, Hordak isn’t mentioned at all.
I thought the best episodes of the show were the prom night episode from season 1, the episode in season 2 where they discuss strategy plans, the pie episode in season 4, and the save the cat episode in season 5. Of the four, my favorite is the pie episode.
I was wondering how the show would redeem Catra. I knew going in it was gonna happen, so my question is HOW was it gonna happen. And I actually thought they handled it beautifully. The thing that makes the Catra redemption thing work is twofold. First, Catra still struggles with her feelings going forward. And second, there are many scenes afterward where the characters still treat her as the bad guy. It wasn’t a case where everyone instantly forgave her or she instantly was cured of her problems. It was done realistically. When you regret something you do, you still feel guilty over what you’ve done. And the show does a tremendous job of conveying that feeling. The same goes for not every character instantly forgiving Catra. When you apologize for your actions, not everyone is going to forgive you immediately. And the show does a good job of conveying that.
Overall, I love She-ra: Princesses of Power. I thought it was brilliantly written, well-animated, and perfectly paced. In the last couple months, I’ve watched a series of animated shows on Netflix: Dragon Prince, Hilda, Glitch Techs, and this show. And of the four shows, this show is my favorite. I love each show for different reasons, but I like Princesses of Power the most because it feels the most complete of all the shows. Plus, its portrayal of mental health issues is better than any other TV show I’ve ever seen.
