I'm Worried About She-Ra

I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret I am embarrassed my pride is wounded because I let myself be fooled by a certain other DreamWorks property I spent like a year of my life like oh well Rabb yes the last few seasons didn't vibe with you but Voltron will get back on track once the clone plots over you'll see it'll be fine discipline so after that train wreck I swore I'd never let myself be duped by a cartoon again lofty goal I know but hey doesn't hurt to try next time I felt that something was wrong I'd trust my gut and for that reason I'm worried about Shiro now I say all this with love I love Shira it's a delight in this house we stand Scorpia but I have noticed that Shira has started to Teeter on the edge of one of Ultron's bigger problems I've talked about this already with my latest Voltron vid so I'll try to be quick Voltron wanted to explore big real-world problems like the horrors of war and the fact that sometimes the people you love die for no reason and the creative teams kids show restrictions killed any chance they had of committing to those points and exploring them with any real depth to be clear here the execs aren't really to blame for this they wanted a light-hearted boy-toy action show with lots of gags the creators were aware of their restrictions set upon them as a kid show as well as the demands of the execs and they still made the decision to pursue a gritty war story the resulting tug of war between the execs and the creators came through to the final product and the show became a confused mess unable to commit to either creative vision look kid shows are different now there are less restrictions on what topics are off-limits but those topics can be very difficult to portray for a younger audience like as a storyteller you might be allowed to portray something like I don't know PTSD but how do you make that topic understandable to a younger demographic without simplifying it so much as to detract from the seriousness of it or invalidate the people who struggle with it that's a conundrum I'm dealing with in my own writing PTSD and other mental illnesses are not something you can conquer in the same way you'd conquer a mustache twirling villain they're a part of you so you don't want to villainize them too much and there's something you handle a day at a time to address that topic with respect you need ambiguity but when you write for kids and by qeh t doesn't always get the green light like don't get me wrong I love children show rules I love when the power of friendship can solve any problem I love when at least most I can put on a show I know that everyone will end up happy together but those rules do mean you as a storyteller are sometimes limited in how you resolve complex problems you might be able to portray a heavy topic but you might also face restrictions on how truthful you can get about it's darker aspects and you'll probably still be expected to solve the problem of that topic with damage things can go wrong is what I'm saying which is why it's crucial to ask yourself can I treat this topic with respect given the restrictions placed upon me by my superiors before you tackle something heavy like what say abuse as like a main theme of your story I'm worried about Shira because for the most part I love how they portray abuse in my opinion they've managed to simplify a very complex difficult topic without disrespecting it so far here's how Shira as portrayed abuse up till this point as a chain cordac does everything he can to earn horrid primes approval when horde prime won't be swayed he takes out his frustration on shadow Weaver shadow Weaver does everything she can to earn horde acts approval when Hordak won't be swayed she takes out her frustration on Katra contra does everything she can to earn shadow Weaver's approval when shadow Weaver won't be swayed she takes out her frustration on adora and when a door is not available Skorpio the only way to break this chain of abuse has posited by the narrative is to find a magical sword and accept your destiny no it's to leave to find friendships where you're valued instead of constantly chasing the approval of people who have decided not to change this show says screw destiny I'm gonna break the chain I'm not gonna be who you want me to be and I'm not gonna carry on your pattern of destruction again and again Shira tells us that the only force stronger than fate is friendship and that friendship can't be forced I love that Shirish owes us that no matter how kind you are to someone no matter how much of yourself you give to them no matter how many times you offer them an out you cannot make someone change you cannot make someone become a good friend they have to make that choice for themselves adora tries over and over to get catch her to leave the Horde Scorpia bends over backwards to be a good friend to Katra they both offer catch her a way out and she says no no amount of pleading or niceties can make catch a change she has to make that choice to face herself in her actions and work to be better and here's my favorite thing the fact that when faced with her refusal to change Scorpia leaves Katra and that's shown to be the right choice score be a promise to be there for Katra and never leave her and she's still allowed to go back on that promise and have that be portrayed as a good thing I know by the time I was 8 I already had manipulative friends I didn't want to leave them though because I'm a nice girl and I'm their only friend sheera says too [ __ ] bad if they're a bad friend you don't have to deal with their [ __ ] you deserve better go look for other people who don't treat you like trash that's a lesson that's relevant to young children as well as adults now I don't think Shira always hits this abuse narrative out of the park here's where we get into the dangerous territory of children show logic applied to complex real-world problems the show marries these two themes by positioning friendship as the solution to abuse and that works most of the time many people suffer a pattern of abuse throughout their lives they're taught that love and friendship looks like abuse to the point that a person may even seek out abusive relationships because other healthy relationships feel fake it's not a real relationship unless you have to earn their love right it's a vital part of an abused person's recovery to break free of that cycle and Trust the friendship of people who really respect and care for them that's a good message that to escape abuse you need to find new healthy people to hang out with forget the promises you made sometimes you got to cut people off to save yourself make good friends who respect you why the waters get muddied when your abusive characters are also you're abused characters Hordak cast aside by horde prime lives to gain his approval so the lesson for him would be to heal through friendship rather than lash out at someone else but he's also a dictator once entrapped to enter his hoar Dax life he's portrayed more like a victim and so much less of a threat when really and you may have forgotten this amidst all the cute and Trachta scenes he's at mass murder people bright moon have been really hurt by the hoard there have been words about the trend and kid shows to heal dictators and other villains through the power of friendship it's like on one hand yeah I'm happy to tell kids that they should always aim to settle things peaceably but on the other hand Nazis are a thing and as a Jew I can tell you I am NOT a fan of the whole kill them with kindness method I'm much more of a I will not spend my time and energy luring some white guy away from his pack of Nazi scum with the power of friendship when I could put that time and energy towards propping up marginalized communities gaol my kindness and respect ends where someone's desire to kill me and other marginalized groups begins so I agree it right now we might not always want to tell kids to solve all their problems with friendship it's a nice message but some variety would be nice and as a kid show Shira could very well be headed towards the same old conclusion where everybody but horrid pride gets redeemed through the power of friendship like I'm not only bothered by the fact that I don't think some of these characters deserve to be redeemed I'm bothered because you know how I said my favorite thing was how Scorpia was allowed to leave Katrin well Katra had that moment of self realization at the end of the season she finally understands that what she's always wanted is love and approval not power it's very likely the show will try to redeem her over the course of season 5 not only because it's a kids show but also because that's the next logical step for Cara's character after that kind of revelation so as an abused character to solve catcher's problems with friendship as per the stories friendship message Katra would need to team back up with adora Skorpio or both this works with kids show logic where everyone's supposed to end up as friends but less with real-life logic whereas an abused person one of the hardest things to do is to leave an abusive friendship relationship whatever and stay gone an abusive relationships there's a little something called the honeymoon phase where the abuser apologizes for their behavior they make promises about how changed and how they'll be better from now on they treat the abused person with all the love and respect they crave and remind them of all the reasons the abused person first fell for them and then the behavior starts all over again it's crucial as an abused person to be able to resist the pole of the honeymoon phase to hold firm against the barrage of pleas and apologies to not doubt yourself like well maybe I was too harsh on them maybe I made a big deal over nothing to not give them another chance because with abusers there's no way to know whether they've really changed it can be very dangerous to return to an abuser once you're out at least most of the time you don't want to take that chance so with Katra maybe she could prove to the audience and escorpion adora that she's committed herself to becoming a better person but even then well abuse dominates this show as a central theme I would hope that at least one of the abuse of characters wouldn't get to reunite with the people they abused or get redeemed through the power of friendship at the moment Scorpia left Katra so there's an abuse person who left Shanna Weaver's kind of treated as a chaotic neutral party adore is an abused person who still lives close to her abuser but only speaks to her as a last resort hoard acts an abuser who let's be real here will most likely be changed by the power of love and become a better person say what you want about all of these but you can't argue that we've got a range of responses to abuse here I'm worried about Shira because as a kids show there will almost certainly be a push to level that spectrum to redeem Katra to redeem shadow weaver to redeem Hordak to make everyone friends and yes they'll probably get to kill the evil horde prime together but what's so special about these other characters is the evidence of their humanity they all have fears and desires they're angry and they're scared and they're low they're cruel and reckless and angry and sometimes they're sweet and likeable their motivations all come from a place of hurt and they have the potential to be better people and we see that abusers aren't cardboard cutouts I'm sure all of us have endured some kind of friendship or relationship where we were taken advantage of and the people that hurt us weren't monsters they were people that's part of what makes it so hard to leave them because there are reasons to like them or believe in their capacity to change to not forgive horde prime would be to not forgive some evil unrelatable cut out to not forgive Katra would mean something it would be acknowledging the messy reality that yeah you are allowed to leave someone and stake on hell you're allowed to leave someone and stay gone even if they do become a better person all is self improvement in the world won't change how they treated you in the past forgiveness doesn't have to be a part of the healing process and you certainly are under no obligation to reintegrate a former abuser into your life that's a lesson that I could have stood to learn as a kid and if she redeems all its abusers or gives them all their friends back that won't be the lesson everybody has to work together to defeat the big bad fine but I hope that if capture proves herself to be a better person Skorpio will still be allowed to say I can't come back with you or I still need some time I hope that Scorpia doesn't say she forgives Katra for the way she treated her I hope that shadow Avery doesn't get treated like a hero or like one of the gang and that adora is allowed to not make up with her I hope not everyone forgives Hordak for the horrible war he put them through so as much as I love the friendship conquers all message I don't want to see that nuance disappear with everyone forgiven or redeemed I feel like this punch and this goodbye would be undermined that way let there be at least some contention somewhere again if the Shira team dropped the ball on this one it won't suddenly make this show bad but shira's ability to balance its children's show logic with its darker more complex themes is one of my favorite things about this series and I really hope they find a way to maintain that balance in the face of a traditional children's show happy ending I'm just worried special thank you as always to all my patrons I love you guys you're my thing and yeah if you would like to see your name along with all these wonderful people then you can pledge to me on patreon where you can get videos early see previews you can even make me read a short not explicit message like this one from yet beat who says love yourself hell yeah alright see you guys next time bye

Channel: The Sin Squad

Views: 393,798

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Id: CkU9YMddvaM

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 25 2020