The Brilliance Of She-Ra’s Final Season

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Hey, just thought I'd share this video here because it's probably the best video ive seen so far analyzing the season.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/eliphas8 📅︎︎ May 24 2020 🗫︎ replies
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Huge spoiler warning for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Season 5, which is the final season, just came out, and this video is packed full of major spoilers. You’ve been warned. Oh my god, I cannot express to you how much I love this show. Sword princess in space! Duelling wives! Enemies to lovers! Magic emotion cat! These outfits! LESBIANS! But okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. When I sat down to watch the newest season of She-Ra, I was prepared for a good show. I really enjoyed the first 4 seasons and even made a video about how well the show handles complex relationships between its characters. But season 5 was better than I could have ever imagined. It’s intense and complex and meaningful but also cute and fun and goofy. “We don’t throw tanks at our friends!” It’s everything I have ever hoped for in a show, and when the credits rolled on the final episode, I had such a warm feeling in my chest. And look, am I, as a lesbian, maybe a little biased because of all the beautiful queerness? Absolutely. Without a doubt. I acknowledge that, and I own it. But She-Ra is a great show for soooo many reasons, and in this video I’m going to go through what I think are some the big ones, split up into three main parts. Part One: This Is How You Develop Characters!!! Through its first four seasons, She-Ra excelled at masterfully developing all of its characters, using their individual arcs to grow them as characters and playing them off each other in just the right way. Season five continues that trend but has the added benefit of being the last season, so we get to see the pay off of four seasons worth of character growth and tensions between characters. Let’s start with the obvious relationship: Adora and Catra. I was honestly doubtful going into season 5 that Catra could be redeemed. She had been offered so many chances at redemption, and she had shot them all down. By season 4, she had been so consumed by rage and hatred and pain that it seemed like she was doomed to spiral down that path into destruction. But, in season 5, she finally redeems herself, and the important thing is, she earns it. Redemption arcs are really hard to do right, and when done wrong, they can feel forced or unearned or cheap. It’s hard to avoid the comparisons to Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender here. Zuko and Catra were both abused by a parent, giving them intense anger issues. Both tried to kill the main character for the majority of the show. Both have a supportive person in their life who they push away. And both realize in the final season that they’re actually on the wrong side of the war. But, they’re still substantially different redemption arcs because of their relationships to the main character, and their own view of their self-worth. Zuko has no positive history with Aang, while Catra has an entire childhood of positive memories with Adora. Zuko knows that he’s done a lot of horrible things, and he knows that he might not be forgiven, but he also knows that he has value and can help Aang take down the Fire Lord. Catra makes it very clear that she does not believe she is worth anything to anybody. “There’s no one left in the entire universe that cares about me.” So Zuko has to earn the trust of people who have no reason to trust him, which is a monumental task, but he has the drive to do it. On the other hand, Catra has such a history with Adora that she just needs one big moment to prove that she still has good in her, and we know that Adora will be there for her -- even if Catra doesn’t want that, or doesn’t think she deserves that. Because Adora, for better or worse, really really wants to believe that Catra can be good. Zuko’s path was about finding his honor in doing the right thing, rather than what his father wanted. Catra’s path was about learning to help the people she loves, even when she has nothing to gain from it, and eventually, about learning how to show love. Throughout the whole show, she has been unable to accept the fact that she could love people. She thought it was a weakness because of how hurt she was by Shadow Weaver, the mother figure who was supposed to love her, and by Adora when she left Catra in the Horde. So Catra couldn’t show love to Scorpia or any of the people in her life. It was her biggest block that kept her from forming close enough relationships with people for them to actually be able to help her. She was in desperate need of help but at the same time refusing help. And when she did finally show someone the tiniest bit of love, Double Trouble, they betrayed her. That scene, at the end of season 4 when Double Trouble calls out everything bad Catra has done, is brutal. But it’s what Catra needed. She needed to realize that her actions were hurting the people she cares about. She needed to be confronted by that. And so when she’s on Horde Prime’s ship, and Prime says that he’s going to capture Adora when she arrives, Catra finally makes the decision to turn against the Horde because she wants to stop hurting the people she loves. She’s finally able to accept that she cares for Adora, because she’s hit rock bottom, and because she realizes this is her final chance. So to stop Adora from coming to Prime’s ship, she sends Glimmer to Adora, which is important not only because it’s a grand gesture that shows she’s on the good side now, but because it’s selfless. Catra has nothing to gain from it. It’s not part of a bigger plan. She’s essentially sacrificing herself to do it. As far as I can tell, it’s her first truly selfless act in the series. But, the key to her development over the course of this season is that she’s only able to make this sacrifice because she does not believe she has any worth. She’s happy to throw herself away to save Adora because she believes that she is a bad person who only hurts people. The ironic part is that it’s this one act that shows that she can be more than that. So at the exact point when she is finally ready to give up, she redeems herself. I just love how that works out, writing-wise. I think it’s a really clever setup that makes the moment feel sooo impactful. Catra’s arc doesn’t end when she decides to fight against the Horde, in fact, that’s just one part of her growth. The rest of the season is about her learning to come to terms with the fact that she has the potential to be a good person. Yes, she’s done awful things, and hurt a lot of people, but she can be better, and she can only do that if she’s able to accept that she has that potential in the first place. Otherwise she’s stuck in an endless cycle of being a bad person because she’s been a bad person. When Adora comes and saves her, it’s the first step in breaking that cycle. The second step comes immediately afterwards, when Catra wants to be better but can’t face the people she’s hurt. I think the episode where she’s forced to confront Entrapta, who she sent to Beast Island, is really important for helping her finally get out of that cycle. She now knows that people can forgive her. That things can get better. That she doesn’t have to be the person she used to be. Without that episode, Catra’s redemption might have seemed too easy or quick. But with it, her redemption becomes messy and complicated, just as a redemption should be. I think that’s a part of why it feels so well earned to me. Because she has to face the people she’s hurt, and also because it’s so tied into her own emotional development and relationship to Adora. I think if Adora wasn’t in the picture and Catra just suddenly decided that what the Horde was doing was wrong, it would’ve felt off. Catra has been okay with the Horde doing a lot of terrible things, why would she suddenly sprout a moral compass at the end? To me, it didn’t seem like Catra’s decision to turn against the Horde was motivated by a sense of right and wrong so much as it was a gut feeling that she had to protect Adora. That makes it personal. That makes it feel real and authentic. Stakes that are tied intricately to a character’s emotions are so much more meaningful than some grand, unimaginable stakes like the destruction of the universe. In a similar vein, while Zuko did realize that what the Fire Nation was doing was wrong, he learned that through his personal experiences living in the Earth Kingdom, and his redemption was more fueled by the fact that once he had everything he ever wanted, he still felt angry and empty. Even when the overarching stakes are large, the audience needs smaller, more personal stakes for it to really feel genuine. And it’s tough to be compared to The Last Airbender, since it’s known for having one of the best redemption arcs, but I think She-Ra’s redemption arc for Catra is amazing in its own way. After Catra is redeemed, though, her and Adora both go through a lot of growth, and I love how they play off each other in this last season. Adora, as some who is really good at showing her love and doing everything she can to help people, she has to learn to accept love. She’s been so busy trying to save everyone else that she’s never really slowed down enough to just be loved. Catra, on the other hand, is notoriously bad at showing affection for people. And so, in the final moments of the show, the climax isn’t a big fight, it isn’t She-Ra versus Horde Prime in space. It’s Adora, lying on the ground, with Catra holding her. Adora isn’t able to transform into She-Ra because she’s preoccupied with saving everyone else at any cost and won’t let anyone care for her, and her She-Ra power seems to come from both giving and receiving love. Catra, in a final desperate plea when she thinks Adora is dying, tells Adora that she loves her. This singular moment caps off Catra’s growth, Adora’s growth, and saves the universe. So it’s kind of, everything. That is really hard to do in a story, and it makes the finale so satisfying. Catra has finally been able to directly show her love. Adora has finally been able to fully accept love. And the giant weapon, the Heart of Etheria, is destroyed. I just cannot imagine a more perfect ending. 10/10. 11/10. I love it so much. But Catra and Adora’s journey together through the season isn’t linear, and Shadow Weaver nearly messes it up for them. When the three of them are reunited, Shadow Weaver immediately begins driving a wedge between them again and belittling Catra. It’s haunting seeing how fast they fall back into old patterns around each other. In the end, this was solved by Shadow Weaver sacrificing herself to save Catra and Adora. I wasn’t so sure how to feel about this at first. On the one hand, a character dying to redeem themselves is a pretty tired concept at this point. On the other hand, I really wanted Shadow Weaver gone. But more than that, I think this works for me because Shadow Weaver isn’t really fully redeemed. We get to see over the course of a couple episodes that even though Shadow Weaver is technically on their side now, she’s still a horrible influence over them, and they don’t like her. I mean, in terms of how redeemed she is: If Adora and Catra have kids, there’s no way they would name any of them Shadow Weaver. Also, he really wanted to pass on Snape’s name more than Hagrid’s? Really? Anyway, Catra gets the closure she needs from Shadow Weaver saying that she’s proud of her, and we don’t have to deal with Shadow Weaver anymore, so honestly, I’m fine with it. Good riddance to the abusive parent character. Adora’s journey on her own throughout this season is pretty interesting too. She’s starts off in a really tough position, having destroyed her sword at the end of the last season, cutting off her connection to She-Ra. It’s classic “tear down the hero before you build them back up” stuff, and I love it. Very Spider-Man when he loses his suit or Thor when he loses his hammer vibes. Sometimes you have to get rid of the thing that the hero relies on for power so that they can find the power within themselves. And that’s exactly what She-Ra does. In a moment where she needs to protect her friends, she summons She-Ra. Over the course of the season, she struggles to do this again, not really understanding what it is that controls her connection to She-Ra. I love that. I love the mystery that it throws into the story, and I love how it comes to represent her ability to accept love. And it makes it so dang satisfying when she does transform into She-Ra. While Adora and Catra’s relationship definitely takes center stage in this season, there’s still plenty going on for the other characters too. Glimmer has a heartfelt arc about apologizing to Bow that I loved because it was a perfect example of how to apologize. “You get to be mad for as long as you need to be. But I’m not going anywhere.” Obviously, she wants Bow to forgive her. But she knows that she can’t force that, and that if he doesn’t want to forgive her or isn’t ready to yet, that’s okay. She wants to be a good friend to him regardless of if he forgives her or not, and that’s the thing about apologies that a lot of people don’t get. If you’re apologizing just to be forgiven, you’re doing it for yourself, so you can feel better and absolve yourself. Glimmer’s apology is great because it isn’t about her. It’s about Bow and his feelings. She’s accepted that she did a bad thing and is taking responsibility for it rather than hoping that Bow will wipe away her guilt. It’s just so mature, and not only sets a good example for the audience, but also shows just how much Glimmer has grown over the series. Bow also gets a chance to go back and see his dads which made me so emotional because the episode where we meet his dads in season 2 was super good and gave us a lot of great backstory on why Bow is the way that he is. This time, in season 5, we get to see that not only are Bow’s dads accepting of the fact that their son wants to fight in the rebellion, but they’re even doing their best to help the rebellion themselves, which just shows how much growth they’ve gone through. Plus, we get this incredible double dad joke to tell us that they’re hiding in the First Ones ruins. “What did the First One say when they burned dinner? It was ruined” I was also curious to see where this season would take Entrapta and Hordak, since they had grown so close in season 3, and Hordak had previously been seen as the kind of unredeemable super-villain. However, with Horde Prime on the scene, Hordak stepped down from that role and became more of a sympathetic character. He’s simply a failed clone being brainwashed and forced to fight for Horde Prime. Throughout the season, he has little flashes of his old life and eventually manages to stand up to Horde Prime because of his love for Entrapta. It’s just great to see that She-Ra’s theme of love being the key to everything extends even to characters like Hordak. I also loved getting to see some more development of Entrapta in this season. Previously, we’ve seen her be obsessed with technology to the point of disregarding other people’s feelings or even what side of the war she was on. Early on in season 5, Entrapta finally has a chance to talk about this, explaining that she’s not great at communicating with people or understanding their emotions, but she does have empathy and love for them, and she’s trying to use her technology to show them that. Although it’s never explicitly stated, this interaction makes me think that Entrapta is some kind of neurodivergent, since a common misconception about autistic people is that they don’t feel empathy because they don’t respond to social cues in the same way as non-autistic people; when in fact, autistic people do feel empathy very strongly, they just often show it in different ways. I don’t know at all if that’s what the writers were going for, but that’s what I perceived it as, and regardless, I think it’s really great representation that a lot of people can probably relate to -- in addition to the fact that it’s just a really emotional and powerful arc for Entrapta. Then there’s Scorpia. She does spend quite a few episodes under Prime’s control, but in the first half of the season, she has some great moments first with Swift Wind and later with Perfuma. Scorpia has always just been the most wholesome character who’s always happened to be on the wrong side of things, and I’m just so glad she finally got her time to shine in this season. “Man, you guys are the best” I love all of her interactions with Swift Wind because they’re both just so full of joy and so supportive of each other. Then later, Perfuma helps her realize her full potential and encourages her to do things on her own that she never had the confidence to do. My heart was so full. All of these characters, all of them have some kind of growth, some kind of interaction with each other that drives them to be better, and that drives the plot forward. This show is unmatched in having so many different kinds of characters whose arcs all lean on each other in a way that makes everything feel connected, real, and meaningful. Part Two: Wow, That’s a Heck of a Plot! I’m sorry but if you had asked me where She-Ra was going to go this season, I would not have guessed space. And you know what, I just wasn’t thinking big enough, because I love this setting. It elevates the series to something beyond just Etheria. It’s like the last Harry Potter book when they’re not longer at Hogwarts, or the last Hunger Games book when there’s no longer a Hunger Games to compete in. The drastic change in setting works to enhance this feeling that there’s something much bigger going on. This isn’t just about the Horde taking over Etheria, this is about Prime destroying the entire universe, and our heroes are going to have to face a lot of stuff that they never could’ve imagined. I love the slow release of information where we learn more and more about Horde Prime and the First Ones as the season progresses, including the fact that they’re basically colonizers who were at war with each other. Like, we already knew from season 4 that the First Ones were not great people. They turned Etheria into a massive weapon and made She-Ra the key, which resulted in Mara sacrificing herself to try to put a stop to it. But during the main characters’ visit to Krytis in season 5, we learn that the First Ones had been siphoning all of the magic from that planet, implying that they went around the universe, colonizing different planets and draining them of their natural resources. Obviously, it’s horrible what the First Ones have done, but I kind of love that as Adora’s backstory. So many heroes, so many “chosen one” characters have this basically royal lineage that makes them special that they’re supposed to respect or cherish, and that lineage gives them a destiny that they have to follow through on. But She-Ra has flipped all of that on its head, saying that Adora’s “destiny” as the First Ones would have it, is evil. It’s activating a giant weapon and killing everyone. So Adora has to fight back against it and create her own destiny. She isn’t a hero because of some royal lineage, she’s a hero because she recognizes the cruelty of those who came before her and is working to be better. And the more we learn about the First Ones, the more clear it becomes that Adora has chosen a very different path from them, which of course feeds into one of the major themes of She-Ra which is that anybody can choose to do the right thing. Nobody is destined to be evil. We’re all in control of our own destinies. I love that. And when they manage to stop the Heart of Etheria in the end, the magic returns to Etheria, no longer contained by the First Ones tech that was put there long ago. So this is a story in part about fighting back against colonization and returning natural resources to where they belong, which I would not have guessed from the first season, but they just did a fantastic job evolving the show with every season into something bigger and bigger. I also just really appreciate the pacing of this season and the way it hits every beat in the story. In the first few episodes, we have the setup of everything that’s going on, people adjusting to things being different from the last season, a lot of big personal stakes that matter but you can tell aren’t the fate-of-the-universe type stakes yet. Then, at the end of episode 7, basically the halfway point, the rebellion is at its lowest point. Lots of them are mind-controlled. The Best Friend Squad is stuck in space. It’s a big “how could they possibly get out of this” moment that has you on the edge of your seat. And then, episode 8 gives them Prime’s weakness, allowing them to start building momentum towards the big fight. Everything builds and builds expertly until the final fight sees everyone coming together and so many people saying that they love each other. It’s just so well written! And it ends with the Best Friend Squad and I just -- my heart can’t handle it! And the character design in this show is phenomenal. I love that Horde Prime is all dressed in white and his thing is about being a shining light driving out the shadows. So often, the enemies in shows like this are dressed in all black, they are the darkness, the shadows, the evil, blah blah blah. And in the beginning, that’s kind of what the Horde was, with the Fright Zone being such a darker setting than Bright Moon. But season 5 flips those expectations on their head and gives us a villain who truly believes he is the light bringing peace to the universe. I love that reversal and the tearing down of any expectations that the viewer has. And I cannot believe this season gave us Mermista, Perfuma, Scorpia, and Sea Hawk in these outfits, they’re so cute! And this shot of Scorpia’s back, oh my god. She-Ra’s redesign? Magical. Catra’s haircut? Amazing. The Star Siblings? Please give me an entire show about them. And we really got personalized spacesuits for the Best Friend Squad! Catra’s even has ears! “If my helmet were that adorable, I’d leave it on too!” And while lots of animated shows seem to just use one cookie-cutter Disney-style model for their female characters, She-Ra has tons of female characters who all have different body types and designs, which really should be the norm. A+ character design on this show, especially in season 5. I love this art style so much with the cute little blush on everyone’s faces, and this final season really just took everything to the next level. Plus, sprinkled throughout this whole series are some really funny moments. I absolutely loved Wrong Hordak having a complete breakdown upon discovering that Horde Prime is not all powerful. “Happy to report that Wrong Hordak’s existential crisis has resolved.” Sea Hawk trying to go to a party but having too many enemies because he likes to burn down boats is just, chef’s kiss. “Now that he can’t blow my cover, it’s smooth sailing from here. Oh ho ho!” Catra saying she has no weaknesses and then getting sprayed by a literal water bottle because she is a cat. I’m dead. “You and your files don’t have anything on real threats, like me. Ahh!” And, of course, Scorpia throwing tanks at her friends. “Oh, so she gets to throw tanks at us!” There’s a lot more, but those were some of the highlights for me. I just really appreciate how this show can tackle such serious themes but also be funny and light-hearted at the right times. It is an expertly written show and I cannot wait to see what the team behind She-Ra does after this. Part Three: This Is Going to Stick With Me Okay, this is the part where I get a little cheesy, so bear with me. Six years ago, in 2014, I watched the Legend of Korra finale as it aired. I had been hoping and hoping and hoping that Korra and Asami would end up together, but I wasn’t sure it would actually happen. And then, it did. Korrasami was canon. I was ecstatic and emotional, and I think it helped me realize some stuff about myself. I hadn’t really seen many positive depictions of two women in a relationship together, and that finale was really meaningful to me. And to be clear, Korra and Asami didn’t even kiss on-screen, they just like held hands and looked at each other. But it will still always be an important part in helping me figure out who I am. Now, in 2020, we get the two female main characters of this super-popular show on Netflix having a drawn out friends-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline over the course of five seasons, ending in this incredibly emotional and beautiful kiss. I just could not have imagined this back in 2014, but I’m so happy that we got here. When I think about all the younger folks watching this show who are questioning themselves right now in the same way I was questioning myself back then, I legitimately want to cry. Considering how meaningful Korrasami was to me, I can’t begin to imagine what Catradora means to a whole new generation of queer women. And even beyond that, for those of us who already know that we’re queer, this is the show that we deserve. One that treats queerness as completely normal. There’s no coming outs, there’s no homophobia, it’s just normal. Catra and Adora just love each other because of course they do! Spinerella and Netossa are wives. Bow’s dads are super cute together. Kyle has a crush on Rogelio. Double Trouble is nonbinary and everyone refers to them using they/them pronouns. Queerness is just an accepted part of this universe and I just cannot express how much I love that, and how much I want more shows like this. For so long, TV shows have been able to imagine fantastical settings with incredibly far-fetched plots, but haven’t been able to imagine a world without queerphobia, where queerness is simply accepted. Not every show needs to be a reflection of the real world. Sometimes it can be fun to just imagine a world where our existence isn’t controversial. And She-Ra proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. So this show is going to stick with me -- and a lot of other people -- for a very long time. Anyway, that’s all I had for you today. If you liked this video, please consider supporting me on Patreon because that’s the only way that I’m able to keep making videos like this. In the comments, let me know what your favorite part of season five was. Thanks so much for watching, everyone, and I’ll see you next time.
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Channel: Riley J. Dennis
Views: 379,275
Rating: 4.893681 out of 5
Keywords: Riley J. Dennis, Riley Dennis, RileyJayDennis, Riley Jay Dennis, video essay, she-ra, she-ra ending explained, she-ra ending analysis, she-ra ending explanation, she-ra ending, she-ra last season, she-ra final season, she-ra and the princesses of power
Id: YFLhKWYsBUo
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Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)
Published: Tue May 19 2020
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