I’ve watched ND Stevenson’s 5-season remake of this ’80’s franchise twice, and now I’m struggling to write succinctly about how great it is. ND Stevenson deserves all the awards for this touching, silly, meaningful masterpiece. Based on an original cartoon series from the 1980’s, it blazes new ground in the story it tells.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (SPOP) takes place in more than one universe, in dreams, in disintegrating realities, and in the end game of centuries of conscripted child soldiers and kingdoms surviving by guerilla warfare.
Etheria is an alien world, driven by magic and technology, in which the boundary between the two is explicitly not clear.
Two opposing empires once wanted to possess this world, a thousand years ago, but it was hidden away in a pocket universe to keep it – and everyone else in the universe – safe from them. Because, if either of them could grasp its secrets, it could pretty much be the source of the next Big Bang.
In the thousand years Etheria was hidden, one empire nearly vanished, and one of their living superweapons was delivered through a portal as an infant. She had no idea, and the abusive villain who raised her had only the slightest inkling of what she would become, either.
SPOP is one of those rare properties that covers serious ground without taking itself too seriously. To name a few topics there’s child abuse, fascism, love, sacrifice, identity, diversity, redemption, the irredeemable, the effect of propaganda on child soldiers, child royalty, disillusionment, genocide, and some very different characters learning how to trust one another.
When the series reboot was announced, a considerable push-back occurred from fans of the original series when Adora appeared younger and more androgenous than the original. Then they got a look at the series and were quite upset by the number of queer characters. But hey, representation IS important so if you are straight, there are at least a few straight couples in the series.
Many of the sub plots are funny and touching at the same time, like the struggles of a clone who finds himself separated from the hive mind and must build an identity to fill that need every sentient being has. In this case, his struggle is the short form of the longer one his fellow clone Hordak endures – abandoned by the collective on a world he is programmed to conquer.
The series dwells repeatedly on the abusive relationship of a power-hungry sorceress and the two children she raises. it’s serious business, not at all funny; even hard to watch in places. It feels like someone in the story writing has experience on the receiving end.
One of the characters is a clearly autistic scientist struggling to find a place in the world. She’s modeled after a real person, incidentally – a storyboard artist who worked on the show. Another is the son of a pair of scholars, who wants to be a soldier. There’s a really annoying unicorn who is also very funny and somewhat endearing. And many more – as usual Wikipedia has the details.
These are samples: bite-sized fragments of the series that leads to a cataclysmic battle whose outcome depends on something other than raw power.
georgewiman 