The foundation of good storytelling is making
the audience care about your characters, and often the best way to do that is through their
relationships with other people. Of course there are other important aspects
to storytelling as well, but creating strong relationships between your characters is key
to making them feel real and relatable. And one of the things that I think can make
a story disappointing is when the relationships between characters are weak or unclear or
underdeveloped. Because then, the audience doesn’t care
about the stakes, and they become less invested in the characters. If you show two people having an epic fight,
it can be -- visually -- the coolest fight in the world, but without emotional stakes,
it’s still just a fight. Now, if you have two people go through dozens
of hardships together and eventually reach a point where they end up fighting each other
over a major disagreement, you’re going to be deeply emotionally invested in the outcome
of the fight. It becomes more than a fight. You’re going to pick a side and be rooting
for that person, or you’ll see it from both sides and be conflicted about who you want
to win. That’s good storytelling. Because in a story, no matter how cool your
plot is, no matter how epic your explosions are, none of that matters if the audience
isn’t invested in the relationships. So today, I want to talk to you about a show
that absolutely nails this aspect of storytelling: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. This is an animated show from Netflix that’s
a remake of a show from 1985, but we’ll only be discussing the 2018 remake here. This show has a lot going for it: a beautiful
art style, a largely female cast, a good balance of humor and action. - No, go back in! Go back in! Glimmer? Glimmer? I think I killed the bed. But what really sets it apart from other shows
is that it’s a masterclass in developing relationships between characters. It delves into the abusive relationship between
Shadow Weaver and the kids she raised, Adora and Catra. It explores the difficult friends-to-enemies
dynamic that that creates between Adora and Catra. And it makes you fall in love with the main
trio of friends, Adora, Glimmer, and Bow. It even has you cheering along for all of
the more minor relationships in the show when the main trio interacts with other folks along
the way. The plot of She-Ra is fascinating enough:
a girl finds a magical sword that allows her to transform and become super powerful, therefore
allowing her to fight back against the evil forces that are trying to take over the world. But if there’s one thing that makes this
show worth watching, it’s not necessarily the plot -- it’s how well all of the relationships
are developed. So this should go without saying, but this
whole video is gonna be full of She-Ra spoilers for season 1. You’ve been warned. Now, when Adora meets Glimmer and Bow, they
are definitely not friends right away. - Ahhh!!
- Ahhh!!! Bow and Glimmer are already best friends who
hang out all the time on Bright Moon, but Adora was raised by the Horde in a place called
the Fright Zone. The show makes it pretty easy for you to guess
which place is for the good guys and which place is for the bad guys. Adora is essentially, a Horde soldier. She’s been raised to hate and fear the Princesses,
including Glimmer, and she thinks that the Horde is doing good by spreading their message
to the rest of Etheria. So when Adora’s caught out alone in the
woods and runs into a Princess and her friend, she treats them as the enemy, and they treat
her as the enemy. Glimmer knows the horrible things that the
Horde has done and therefore really doesn’t like Adora, and that’s understandable. The reason they end up being friends, though,
is because Adora sees firsthand what the Horde is doing when they attack and destroy an innocent
village. Ideologically, she knows she can no longer
support the Horde. And when she realizes that, she’s scared
that she’s going to be alone -- because the Horde will hate her for being a traitor,
and the people of Bright Moon will hate her for being a Horde soldier. That’s when she’s open to becoming friends
with Glimmer and Bow, because she recognizes that they’re no longer the enemy that she
was brainwashed to believe they are. For Glimmer, learning to accept Adora as her
friend is a little more difficult because her dad was killed by the Horde. Bow, on the other hand, doesn’t have such
a personal connection to hating the Horde, and his personality leans more towards befriending
everyone he meets. So it’s Bow that nudges them together until
Glimmer finally learns to trust Adora when she sees that Adora is a person just like
her, it’s just that Adora had a traumatic and isolated childhood in the Horde. Once they’re established as the “best
friends squad” though -- - Best friends squad! -- that’s when the show begins to flesh
them out on a deeper level. It uses their friendship to address some of
their fears and motivations. In the beginning, Adora is worried that they
only want to be her friend because she’s a weapon. With the sword she found, she can transform
into She-Ra and is a powerful asset to the Princess Alliance that Glimmer is trying to
re-form. And that insecurity leads Adora to panic when
she can’t instantly transform into She-Ra. The actions that result from that insecurity
end up turning a horse into a unicorn-pegasus thing and exposing her as a Horde soldier
to all of Bright Moon. And that eventually leads to Bow and Glimmer
explaining to Adora that she’s their friend because of who she is, not because of She-Ra. They admire her ability to leave the Horde
and do what she thinks is right. And one of the basics of storytelling which
I’m sure you’ve heard a million times is: show, don’t tell. I think that advice is often over-prescribed,
but it’s still important. It’s one thing to hear her friends reassure
her that they’re her friend, it’s another to see them perform an action that proves
that. And for the viewer, watching the characters
do something can evoke a much stronger response. So, not long after Adora has her freak out
about them not liking her, they come to her room for a sleepover because she mentioned
earlier that she’s not able to sleep alone because in the Horde there were always people
around. I think that’s a really powerful moment
that sets the tone for how the show is excellent not only at having characters communicate
their feelings but also at showing them express their feelings in a way that is so meaningful
it has to tug at your heart strings. I mean, they left their comfy beds to have
a sleepover with their brand new friend from the Horde because she was uncomfortable. That’s so dang sweet. - Why is it the one who snores is always the
first to fall asleep? - What? I don’t snore! As their relationship progresses, though,
it’s inevitable that there’s going to be some tension or fighting. Nobody gets along perfectly all the time. But what She-Ra does really well is model
healthy mechanisms for dealing with fights between friends. Like in one episode, Bow is really proud of
a sonic arrow that he’s made, but Glimmer and Adora make fun of him for it. By the end of the episode, surprise surprise,
it’s the sonic arrow that saves them all. And so, Glimmer gives him a very heartfelt
apology and recognizes that she should’ve been more supportive of the thing he liked. Likewise, later in the series, the three friends
are at a place called Mystacor where they’re trying to help Adora relax. Adora is still afraid that the Horde is after
her, and she keeps seeing Shadow Weaver, the abusive woman who raised her, in shadows or
out of the corner of her eye. Initially, Bow and Glimmer discount her experiences
because they think it’s all in her head. They think she’s hallucinating because of
the trauma she’s been through, but then it turns out that Shadow Weaver had actually
gotten into Mystacor and had been screwing with Adora the entire time they were there. And so when all of that is revealed at the
end, Bow is nearly in tears when apologizing to her because he realizes he’s really messed
up. The friendship between Adora, Bow, and Glimmer
isn’t perfect because they’re always happy and getting along. That would make for a pretty boring story
after all. It’s an amazing friendship because when
they do have conflicts, they’re able to work through them and apologize meaningfully. For one more example of this, there’s a
conflict amongst them when Glimmer starts feeling jealous about Bow attending the Princess
Prom with Perfuma instead of her and Adora. - It’s the best friend squad in action, right, bow? - Actually, I’m going with Perfuma. - What!? The show does a really good job of showing
that it’s okay to have these bad feelings -- it’s just necessary to talk about them
and be honest. Because ultimately Glimmer isn’t jealous
because she doesn’t like Perfuma or because she doesn’t want Bow to have other friends. She’s jealous because she’s insecure about
herself, and she’s worried that if Bow becomes better friends with other people, he’ll
stop being her best friend. That revelation, that her jealousy is her
own issue to work through and that Bow will always value their friendship, is hard for
her. Bow, who is normally super amicable and friendly
puts his foot down and defends his right to have other friends. It’s a really sweet moment of growth for
Glimmer that is hashed out entirely through her friendship with Bow. And the show leaves you rooting for both of
them because you know that they can be great friends and that they’re only fighting because
Glimmer’s failing to properly communicate and address her feelings. It’s easy to use jealousy as a tool to drive
conflict, but it’s harder to really make your characters grapple with why they feel
jealousy in the first place. Not only is it good storytelling because it
makes you care about the characters, it’s good storytelling because it can help people
interrogate their own feelings of insecurity or jealousy if they see themselves at all
in Glimmer. And this doesn’t all happen in one episode. Shows can often feel really robotic if every
conflict that arises at the beginning of an episode is dealt with by the end of the episode. But in She-Ra’s 13 episodes, conflicts rise
and fall over varying time periods, and that makes all the situations feel more real to
an audience. Even though Glimmer starts feeling jealous
in episode 8, it isn’t until episode 10 when her and Bow really and truly make up. Towards the end of the series, Adora’s friendship
with Bow and Glimmer is pretty cemented. But that hits a roadblock when Light Hope,
the ancient being who teaches Adora about her powers as She-Ra, says she needs to let
go of her attachments to her friends. It’s a kind of classic dilemma: Do you surround
yourself with your close friends and put them in danger, or isolate yourself from them for
their safety? In fact, we’ve seen another animated character
face a similar dilemma. - Now, let all of those attachments go. Let them flow down the river, forgotten. - What? Why would I let go of Katara? I love her! - It is as you said. Your friends are endangered by your presence. It is better to let go now. - But, I can’t just leave my friends. And you know, now that you mention it, both
She-Ra and the Avatar are said to bring balance to the world -- after having disappeared for
either a hundred or a thousand years. And like Aang, Adora eventually decides that
the people she loves are more important to her than an ancient idea of what the Avatar
-- or She-Ra -- is supposed to be. Of course she wants to protect them, but she
also knows that they’re stronger together. She doesn’t want to face the Horde without
them, and ultimately, that’s one of the larger messages of the show -- that we’re
all stronger together. That unity and friendship and collective action
are the things that truly empower us. And that message is brought together not only
by Adora’s connection to Bow and Glimmer, but by all of their connections to the other
Princesses. Throughout the series, their goal is to recruit
the other Princesses to the Princess Alliance. They think that with all of them combined,
they have a chance of defeating the Horde. But divided, they could be easily defeated. Their first recruit is Princess Perfuma, a
hippy whose power is making flowers and other greenery. Then comes Princess Mermista, who can control
water and is almost constantly groaning. - Ughhhh
- Aghhhhh - Euhhh Then there’s Princess Entrapta, who loves technology
more than anything in the world, and her hair acts like an extra set of hands. With three of the Princesses signed onto the
Alliance, our heroes are feeling pretty good. But when they find Princess Frosta, a ten-year-old
girl who is surprisingly intense and controls ice, she refuses to join them because she
believes the Horde poses no threat to her personally. But when Bow and Glimmer are kidnapped and
Adora is feeling alone without her closest friends, that’s when the Princess Alliance
shows up. Because friendship isn’t only about the
people you’re closest with, it’s about everyone who you’re willing to help when
the time comes. On their rescue mission, however, they watch
Princess Entrapta walk back into a room that is immediately filled with flames. Naturally, they assume she died. This causes the two remaining recruits to
back out of the Alliance, and things seems pretty bleak. But at the climax of the series, when Bright
Moon is under attack by the Horde and they send up a distress beacon, Perfuma, Mermista,
and Frosta all come to help them. They don’t explain much of each Princess’s
decision to come back since this all happens right at the end of the season, but I think
it can be assumed that when they saw the distress beacon, they forgot about their differences
and rushed to help Bright Moon because they knew it was the right thing to do. I definitely think they’ll delve more into
the relationships between the main trio and the other Princesses when season 2 comes out, but I thought this was a fitting end to season 1. While specific episodes zoom in on particular
relationships that the audience should care about, the overarching theme of unity amongst
very different people ties it all together. She-Ra is a story about friendship, about
connection. And it’s about how those connections make us stronger, both on a large scale and a personal one. There are a couple other relationships that
play into this theme throughout the first season that aren’t quite as notable, but
do contribute to the overall narrative in a really cohesive way. When Bow is attacked by robots in Entrapta’s
castle, he’s rescued by the kitchen staff, three folks who spend their time making tiny
foods for Entrapta and don’t know anything about fighting robots or even really standing
up for themselves. Bow, as the only one of them trained in combat,
could go into hero mode and try to save them all, or even just leave and save himself. Instead, he decides that they would work best
as a team. Thematically, this fits with the rest of She-Ra
really well, but it is also particularly telling about Bow’s personality. He’s not the typical macho hero dude who
feels a need to save everyone and constantly prove his strength. He cares about people’s feelings and wants
everyone to get along -- and he wears the coolest crop top. I could ramble all day about how much I love
Bow and how he represents a way to be a guy without leaning into toxic masculinity. But, we’re here to talk about relationships,
not character design. So in the episode with the kitchen staff,
Bow does his best to give his new friends courage, because he knows that people are
always stronger together. And it works. They save the day with their tiny foods and
fizzy drinks. - The rebellion needs regular people now more
than ever. - We are ready! *plate breaks* Then, there’s Sea Hawk. He starts off just as a way for them to cross
a large body of water because he has a ship. - Adventure! - Don’t do that. - Sorry. But when he’s sad about not being taken
seriously and ready to leave them all behind, Glimmer talks him out of it. She says that they’re all his friends, and
that they can face the challenges ahead of them together. So I’d argue that one of She-Ra’s main
themes is the power of friendship and togetherness -- and it could be easy for that to come off
as corny. But I don’t think it does. I think it comes off as real. None of the relationships feel forced or awkward
or needlessly positive. There’s conflict everywhere, and the relationships
are complicated. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the
two major mother-daughter relationships in the show. First, let’s talk about Glimmer and her
mom, Queen Angella. In the beginning, we see that Glimmer really
doesn’t want to be around her mom, because her mom is overbearing and overprotective,
when all Glimmer is trying to do is help them beat the Horde. And it’s easy to see why that would be frustrating
for Glimmer, but the show also does a good job of showing that Angella really does care
about Glimmer and is only being so protective out of love. When Glimmer is hurt, Angella rushes to heal
her. When Glimmer brings in a Horde soldier, Adora,
and asks her mother to trust her judgement, she does. Fast forward a few episodes, and Glimmer has
been kidnapped. Angella now faces what she calls an impossible
decision: choosing between the people of her kingdom, and her daughter. She can either turn herself over to the Horde
to save Glimmer, or allow the Horde to keep Glimmer and continue to lead and defend Bright
Moon -- but she can’t do both. And even though she calls the decision impossible,
she makes her decision almost instantly. I'm going to accept Hordak's terms. Glimmer is all I have. And if that’s not a grand gesture to show
how much she cares about her daughter, I don’t know what would be. After Glimmer returns, though, we see the
same conflict arising between them: Angella wants to spend time with Glimmer and help
her, but Glimmer wants to be left alone. And Glimmer is, presumably, a teenager, so
I think it’d be easy to write this off as teen angst. But the show doesn’t do that. Instead, the show brings Angella and Glimmer
together until they can finally have an honest conversation about their feelings. That’s when we discover that Angella blames
herself for the death of her husband. She ordered the battle that got him killed
by the Horde, but she never wanted Glimmer to see her weakness. However, it’s seeing that weakness that
allows Glimmer to finally be honest with her mother, because she was doing the same thing. While kidnapped, she was infected with something
and now keeps glitching every few minutes. She was hiding that from her mom because she
always thought of her mom as being perfect, of having no weaknesses, and so Glimmer felt
compelled to try and emulate that. It’s a really sweet moment when they’re
able to realize that they’ve both been hiding things from each other that they didn’t
have to. This is such a satisfying moment in the show
because we so thoroughly understand the motivations. We can understand not wanting to appear weak
in front of your daughter and we can also understand wanting to be strong like your
mother. This mother-daughter relationship adds a layer
to both of their characters that makes you empathize even further with them. They don’t just interact for the sake of
conflict or exist just to further Adora’s story: they have their own struggles and motivations
that cause them to act the way they do. And those motivations are brought to light
for the audience through their relationship together. That’s fantastic storytelling. Now let’s contrast that with Shadow Weaver
and her relationship to Adora and Catra. This is also a great example of storytelling,
but it’s a much more toxic relationship. What we know from the series is that Shadow
Weaver took Adora and Catra under her wing at some point when they were very young. We don’t learn much about who their families
were before that. But immediately it becomes clear that Shadow
Weaver has a favorite, and it’s Adora. That drives a rift between them which we’ll
discuss more in a little bit. But with both of them, Shadow Weaver is extremely
controlling and abusive. With Catra, the abuse is very clear in the
way she talks to her and treats her. It’s outright hostile. She calls her names and threatens her, and
in the beginning, Catra is clearly terrified of her. - Clearly, no one else can be trusted to bring
her back to the Horde. Least of all you. Now go. I said go! With Adora, her abuse is more like manipulation. - They’ll never accept you! Not like I do. She misleads her about what the Horde is actually
doing, and denies her information about the outside world. Later we find out that Adora doesn’t even
know what a party is, has never relaxed in her life, and was basically only taught how
to fight. Shadow Weaver may have always favored Adora
growing up, but that’s because she saw potential in using her as a weapon for the Horde. She never actually loved her or cared about
her wellbeing, which explains why Adora was worried that other people in her life might
just be using her as a weapon too. Contrast that with Angella’s parenting style,
which is caring *too much* for her daughter's wellbeing. Storytelling-wise, it’s a clever parallel. But thankfully, Adora is able to see what
the Horde is doing is wrong, and she escapes. Catra, on the other hand, doesn’t share
the same ideology as Adora, and chooses to stay. Because of this, we get a deeper look into
how Shadow Weaver treats Catra than we do Adora. And what we see of their relationship is something
extremely abusive and toxic and unhealthy. Despite that, Catra wants to stay. Not because she cares about Shadow Weaver
or because Shadow Weaver has successfully tricked her into obedience. She makes that very clear. - I’m plenty strong now, and I don’t need
you. She wants to stay because the Horde can give
her everything that she’s ever wanted and ever been denied. The Horde can make her feel powerful, and
even have power over her abuser, Shadow Weaver. Just because she’s able to see the flaw
in this single individual, she’s not able to see the flaw in the overall system. Whereas Adora recognizes that the Horde is
evil, Catra only recognizes that Shadow Weaver is evil. And so a large part of Catra’s arc of the
season is her gaining power over Shadow Weaver within the Horde. And you feel for her. I mean, she’s a child of abuse, largely
fueled by revenge. And, really, it’s a pretty justified revenge. Shadow Weaver has treated her terribly for
her whole life. It makes sense to want to take back some power
in that situation. And so her story is one where you both root
for her and against her. She’s the perfect anti-hero. You want to see Shadow Weaver get punished
for what she did to Catra, but at the same time, Catra is actively working within the
Horde to forcefully take over Bright Moon. So there’s a conflict for the viewer there,
and that makes for a really emotionally enticing show. Without seeing this relationship, Catra would
be a far less interesting character. If we didn’t know what she had gone through,
she could be another villain who’s evil just because. But when her motivations are demonstrated
through her relationships and fleshed out throughout the season, you can’t help but
care for her. And so now, I want to talk about the relationship
between Adora and Catra. Because while the main trio of friends -- Adora,
Bow, and Glimmer -- have the most wholesome relationship and I love them dearly, Adora
and Catra’s relationship is by far the most tense and nail-biting. They start off the series as best friends,
but when Adora leaves the Horde, they become enemies on opposite sides of a war. Despite that, they have several instances
where they talk and argue and interact in ways that aren’t just fighting, although
there is tons of fighting. One clever plot device for this was the Princess
Prom, where Adora and Catra both attend and fighting is strictly prohibited. - Revered Hostess, you can’t let them in. They’re from the Horde. - The rules state clearly that all Princesses,
and their chosen guests, are welcome. That leads to this iconic dancing-with-your-evil-butch-friend-turned-enemy
scene that you know I absolutely loved. And then, at one point, Adora and Catra both
stumble into a First Ones facility, a building created by people who lived over a thousand
years ago and had highly advanced technology. This is where they stumble through their old
memories of being children together in possibly one of the best episodes of the entire series. Flashback scenes can be so so boring, and
more often than not, the information you get from them could be shown to the audience in
a different way that doesn’t yank the viewer out of the story. The creators of She-Ra, however, found the
perfect solution. In this episode, the flashbacks aren’t separate
from the main story, they drive it. As Adora and Catra search for a way out of
the building and talk about their feelings, they see child versions of themselves, and
everything that you see in their memories has a relevant impact to what’s happening
with them at that moment. It’s honestly a brilliant little piece of
storytelling that just really takes Adora and Catra’s dynamic to the next level. So it’s through this episode that we dive
a lot deeper into Adora and Catra’s relationship. First, we see them as young kids, laughing
and playing together. Then, they’re teenagers, and Adora beats
Catra in a training drill. When Adora gets praise for this, it makes
Catra feel angry and unappreciated. But instead of talking through her feelings
with her friend, she represses her emotions and isn’t honest with Adora. This leads Catra’s resentment to fester
over the years as Adora continues to get preferential treatment. On top of that, whenever Catra is hurt, particularly
by Shadow Weaver, Adora does her best to stand up for her and to protect her because she
thinks that’s the best thing to do. But Catra grows to resent that too because
she doesn’t want to be protected. It’s sad to watch, actually, because you
know that Catra has ended up where she is because of what she was taught in the Horde. She was taught to repress her feelings because
they could be seen as weakness. She was taught to resent being taken care
of because she needs to do everything herself. She was even taught, in a way, to hate Adora. Shadow Weaver pitted them against each other,
and I have to believe that was intentional. Abusers often do that because it makes it
easier to control people if they’re too busy fighting each other to fight back against
you. She tried to make Catra direct her anger at
Adora rather than at herself. In the end, Catra manages to have plenty of
anger for both Adora and Shadow Weaver, but you can clearly see the factors that drove
her there. I kind of wonder what an alternate timeline
would look like where Catra felt comfortable expressing her feelings towards Adora and
the two of them were able to grow up on a more equal footing. Maybe they both would’ve been able to leave
the Horde together. And I think that’s a mark of good storytelling. Catra isn’t evil just because she’s evil,
she’s the product of her circumstances. Adora and Catra’s relationship throughout
the rest of the series has several different highs and lows. In the beginning, Adora desperately wants
to believe that the Horde is good and that she’s just missing something. Then, when she finally accepts that the Horde
is evil, she urges Catra to join her. - I’m not going home, Catra. I can’t. Not after everything I’ve seen. Come with me. You don’t have to go back there. We can fix this. And on multiple occasions, she tries to save
Catra’s life, even when Catra is actively working to disrupt her plans and hurt her. To me, it seems like Adora is driven more
by her ideology than her personal friendships. - We have to put a stop to this. - What? Why? - Because this is a civilian town. Look around, these aren’t insurgents. They’re innocent people! If she valued her friendships more than her
core beliefs, she would’ve stayed in the Horde with Catra. But she was willing to throw away her relationship
with her closest friend who she’s known her entire life, all because she recognizes
that what the Horde is doing is wrong. And I think that’s admirable. It’s not that she doesn’t care about her
friends -- I think she proves that through her repeated attempts to try to talk some
sense into Catra -- it’s just that she knows a friendship isn’t worth the pain she would
be inflicting on others as a part of the Horde. On the other hand, Catra is motivated more
by her personal relationships than by her ideology. At no point in the series do we see Catra
talk about how great the Horde’s mission is. She’s not ideologically connected to the
Horde in the same way that Adora is ideologically opposed to the Horde. She’s not the kind of villain who believes
deep down that she has to do what she’s doing because it’s the right thing to do. That kind of villain can be a really interesting
character, but that’s not what Catra is. Instead, Catra is motivated by her relationships. Having been denied power and recognition her
entire life by her mother figure, she now seeks it out in whatever form she can. And when Adora leaves the Horde, it solidifies
Catra’s journey down that path because she sees it as a betrayal. - How could you possibly be okay with that? - Because it doesn’t matter what they do. The two of us look after each other. Catra can’t imagine leaving the Horde without
Adora because Catra values personal relationships above ideology. So leaving the Horde without Adora would make
no sense. Whatever she does, Adora should be there beside
her. And that’s why she can’t comprehend why
Adora did what she did, and why she can’t forgive her. So Catra doesn’t stay with the Horde because
she loves what they stand for, she stays with the Horde because it’s where she can have
revenge on the people who’ve hurt her: Shadow Weaver and Adora. Despite this, Catra has moments where she
can’t help but care for Adora. - It wasn’t all bad growing up in the Fright
Zone, was it? - I mean, you still have some good memories,
right? - Of course I do. At first, Catra protects Adora by hiding the
fact that she can turn into She-Ra. She even cries over how much it hurts her
that Adora is gone. And when Adora returns to the Fright Zone
to save Glimmer, Catra gives her her sword back just before she’s about to leave. She later says that she gave it back to her
so that she wouldn’t come back to the Fright Zone, but I don’t fully buy that. I think that may have been a part of it, but
you can see in that scene that Catra still cares about Adora. They have such a messy rollercoaster of a
relationship that it really makes the audience get invested in them. Simple relationships are boring and predictable. Complicated relationships like the one between
Adora and Catra keep viewers on their toes. Towards the end of the season, Catra leaves
Adora hanging from the edge of a cliff, expecting her to die. In this moment, you learn why Catra really
hates Adora. It’s because she thinks that Adora was controlling
her her entire life. Of course, Adora was just trying to protect
her and take care of her, but because Catra was never able to talk to her about any of
that, and because all Catra’s known her entire life is being controlled by Shadow
Weaver, Catra really truly believes that Adora was just trying to control her too. You’d think that would mark the end of any
positive feelings between them, but it doesn’t. I mean, they have an outright brutal battle,
but at the end of it, when Catra ends up dangling from a cliff that looks very similar to the
one Adora had been dangling from just a couple episodes earlier, Adora doesn’t hesitate
to lift her back up. And when the Princess Alliance pushes back
the Horde and saves Bright Moon, Adora watches Catra leave, and you can see the sadness on
her face. Catra is her enemy, but she still cares about
her. And I think she wishes more than anything
that Catra would leave the Horde and come join her on Bright Moon, but she knows that’s
not possible. The beautifully twisted relationship between
these two is, I think, the best storytelling aspect of She-Ra, or at least the most interesting. I love how this show handles all the relationships
between its characters, my personal favorite is probably the wholesome main trio, but the
Adora-Catra dynamic is just very well done. And lastly, I want to touch on some of the
romantic relationships in this show. You may have noticed that up until this point,
we haven’t really mentioned any. And that’s because, on the whole, there
aren’t many obvious romantic relationships at all. In fact, the only named couple that appears
on screen together is Spinnerella and Netossa -- two women, who are incredible. They really don’t get enough screen time
in season 1, and I hope we’ll see more of them in season 2. The only other relationship really mentioned
is between Queen Angella and King Micah, but he died when Glimmer was very young. I think it’s notable that the only living canon couple in She-Ra is made up of two queer women. It speaks a lot to one of the show’s other
strengths: diversity. And I think it should lead us to believe that
other characters in the series might be queer as well. I mean, even though there aren’t any other
couples in the series, there are quite a few moments that could be interpreted as flirty
or romantic, where characters blush or get closer to each other than is really necessary
between two platonic pals. - Thanks. - Yeah, whatever, don’t mention it. - You did these just now? - [Out loud] Yes! [In his head] Sea Hawk is impressed with my
knots, this is the best day of my life! [In sea shanty sing song] I got you! - *gasp* *orchestral music* *shine noise*
- Oh my! - I like your shirt! - Kyle! - Why are you telling me all this? - I… don’t know. I guess… I guess because you’re the first person
who’s ever listened to me. - She stole my food and then asked me to spy
on people with her. Is this what love feels like? I don’t know if we’ll see more romantic
relationships develop in the second season, but I think that at least in the first season,
the lack of romantic relationships is kind of refreshing. Lots of shows force romantic relationships
into situations where they’re really unnecessary, and it was nice to see She-Ra throw that trope
out the window. This show didn’t need romantic relationships
to cause drama to keep the viewers interested because the non-romantic relationships in
the show were developed so well. And there are so many other reasons to love
this show besides the relationships, but I think this video has probably gone on long
enough. If you haven’t watched She-Ra yet, I’d
highly recommend you pop on over to Netflix and check it out. This video is not sponsored by them, I just
love this show so much. The second season is coming out on April 26th, and
I cannot wait. Anyway, if you’d like to help me make more
videos like this in the future, I would love your support over on Patreon. These videos would not be possible without
the support of all of the lovely folks over on my Patreon, so if you want to be a part
of that, you can click the Patreon logo on the screen or use the link in the description.. You can also subscribe and give this video
a thumbs up if you liked it. Oh and let me know what you thought about
this video essay format in the comments, I was just trying something new. Thanks so much, and I’ll see you next time.
This is the first time I've checked the comments of a Riley vid where the chuds weren't out in full force. Here's to hoping that becomes the norm.
This video actually got we to check it out with my younger brother. It's good -- very much in the vein of many modern animated fantasy series. The haters seem to have really fixated on the dumbest aspects that were changed from the original, mostly that She-Ra doesn't look like a supermodel. I'm okay with the change for a few reasons:
Bow is a trans man js