She-Ra, season 5
Jul. 5th, 2020 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI meant to watch season 5 of She-Ra all in one go when it first came out, and then it had so many EMOTIONS that I couldn’t, so I’ve only just now finished it.
I suspect that I’m the last She-Ra fan on earth to finish the season, but nonetheless I’m putting my thoughts behind a
I felt that the latter half of the season was rushed in a way that undercut a lot of the emotional arcs. We’ve spent four seasons exploring all of Catra’s emotional problems, and then we get a few episodes of Catra on Horde Prime’s ship and she’s maybe tentatively come to a detente with Glimmer because she has no other possible allies… and then she gets brainwashed and rescued and she’s on Mara’s ship with the others, and then she’s part of the Best Friend Squad and all of the dysfunctional patterns that bedeviled her friendships with Scorpia and Entrapta and indeed Adora are… basically… gone?
Yeah, sure, Catra also gets a therapy invisible-chameleon-shapeshifter-cat, but still, I thought we needed at least a few more episodes to see her struggling with this. Ditto Shadow Weaver’s change of heart: after four seasons of hearing about how manipulative she is, suddenly in season five she does an about-face and helps our heroes without any kind of plan-within-a-plan to benefit herself?
Of course Shadow Weaver may have sized up the threat of Horde Prime and realized that she needs to act with unprecedented helpfulness if she or anyone is going to survive (and you can hardly accrue untold magical power if you are dead, after all), but all the same, I felt we needed so spend just a little bit more time with this. Especially with the moment when she tells Catra “I’m so proud of you”: obviously that’s what Catra has always wanted for her whole life, but Shadow Weaver has always seemed like the kind of person who would perversely deny Catra the satisfaction of hearing it even if Shadow Weaver really DID feel proud of her… So when did that change? HOW did that change?
I think this season also suffered because the war strand of the story really came to the forefront, and that’s always been the weakest part. The show is really strong on friendship and abusive relationships and interpersonal trauma, but it’s never been big at showing war that is actually, well, war, where soldiers are killed and maimed and wounded and civilians get slaughtered in the crossfire and the land is laid to waste. In five seasons, we lose one named character, Angella, and even she doesn’t actually die, she’s just kind of stuck in a spiritual limbo land. (And I’m honestly surprised she’s still there at the end of the series, but again, the last episode wraps up SO quickly after the defeat of Horde Prime, there was no time to save her.)
And, of course, to a certain extent this is the way it has to be. How could we care about Catra or Hordak’s redemption arcs if, say, Glimmer and Bow died horrible lingering deaths from war wounds? How could we want anything but for Catra and Hordak to end up in front of a war crimes tribunal?
For the first four seasons this is fine, but in season five the show ramps the threat level up SO high - Horde Prime hopes to use Etheria’s magic to destroy THE ENTIRE GALAXY - that the continued bloodlessness of the war begins to seem ludicrous in a way that undercuts the integrity of the show. How on earth can I take Horde Prime seriously as a threat when he can’t manage to kill or permanently brainwash a single named character?
This makes it sound like I hated the season, which I didn’t. I loved the endgame pairings, I loved the fact that we got essentially ten different Winter Soldier fights (“brainwashed friend/lover, I love you! Let me save you from your brainwashing!”) - although, again, they would have had more impact if there had been more of an interval between them! - I loved a lot of the ingredients that went into the season. But I felt like the show didn’t get enough time to develop the storyline fully, so the season felt significantly weaker than the four seasons that came before it, and it was sad to see a show that had hitherto been so strong end on this wobbly note.
I suspect that I’m the last She-Ra fan on earth to finish the season, but nonetheless I’m putting my thoughts behind a
I felt that the latter half of the season was rushed in a way that undercut a lot of the emotional arcs. We’ve spent four seasons exploring all of Catra’s emotional problems, and then we get a few episodes of Catra on Horde Prime’s ship and she’s maybe tentatively come to a detente with Glimmer because she has no other possible allies… and then she gets brainwashed and rescued and she’s on Mara’s ship with the others, and then she’s part of the Best Friend Squad and all of the dysfunctional patterns that bedeviled her friendships with Scorpia and Entrapta and indeed Adora are… basically… gone?
Yeah, sure, Catra also gets a therapy invisible-chameleon-shapeshifter-cat, but still, I thought we needed at least a few more episodes to see her struggling with this. Ditto Shadow Weaver’s change of heart: after four seasons of hearing about how manipulative she is, suddenly in season five she does an about-face and helps our heroes without any kind of plan-within-a-plan to benefit herself?
Of course Shadow Weaver may have sized up the threat of Horde Prime and realized that she needs to act with unprecedented helpfulness if she or anyone is going to survive (and you can hardly accrue untold magical power if you are dead, after all), but all the same, I felt we needed so spend just a little bit more time with this. Especially with the moment when she tells Catra “I’m so proud of you”: obviously that’s what Catra has always wanted for her whole life, but Shadow Weaver has always seemed like the kind of person who would perversely deny Catra the satisfaction of hearing it even if Shadow Weaver really DID feel proud of her… So when did that change? HOW did that change?
I think this season also suffered because the war strand of the story really came to the forefront, and that’s always been the weakest part. The show is really strong on friendship and abusive relationships and interpersonal trauma, but it’s never been big at showing war that is actually, well, war, where soldiers are killed and maimed and wounded and civilians get slaughtered in the crossfire and the land is laid to waste. In five seasons, we lose one named character, Angella, and even she doesn’t actually die, she’s just kind of stuck in a spiritual limbo land. (And I’m honestly surprised she’s still there at the end of the series, but again, the last episode wraps up SO quickly after the defeat of Horde Prime, there was no time to save her.)
And, of course, to a certain extent this is the way it has to be. How could we care about Catra or Hordak’s redemption arcs if, say, Glimmer and Bow died horrible lingering deaths from war wounds? How could we want anything but for Catra and Hordak to end up in front of a war crimes tribunal?
For the first four seasons this is fine, but in season five the show ramps the threat level up SO high - Horde Prime hopes to use Etheria’s magic to destroy THE ENTIRE GALAXY - that the continued bloodlessness of the war begins to seem ludicrous in a way that undercuts the integrity of the show. How on earth can I take Horde Prime seriously as a threat when he can’t manage to kill or permanently brainwash a single named character?
This makes it sound like I hated the season, which I didn’t. I loved the endgame pairings, I loved the fact that we got essentially ten different Winter Soldier fights (“brainwashed friend/lover, I love you! Let me save you from your brainwashing!”) - although, again, they would have had more impact if there had been more of an interval between them! - I loved a lot of the ingredients that went into the season. But I felt like the show didn’t get enough time to develop the storyline fully, so the season felt significantly weaker than the four seasons that came before it, and it was sad to see a show that had hitherto been so strong end on this wobbly note.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 01:46 pm (UTC)Here's a thing about that which bugged me which I didn't put in my letter--and it's more a rant against this particular trope/plot move than against She-Ra in particular: what is it with destroy-everything villains? ****IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE**** Like, it made emotional sense that Catra was willing to try to open a portal, even though it was pointed out to her that this might/would probably destroy Etheria, because she was basically suicidally unhappy and didn't care who she took down with her. But that's not Horde Prime's motivation... at all! So why destroy the whole galaxy? I feel like they larded on too many types of evil with him, and they end up contradictory. Like, if you're going to be a narcissistic cult leader who is happy to bask in the adoration of your own clones, why bother with chipping people? And if you're going to chip people, then ... why would you destroy them? And if you're into the Cleansing Fire that will destroy all imperfection and then you're going to start over with your vision, well, I feel like we need a sense that you've got a safe vantage point from which to do this--but/and again, all the other actions then feel pointless.
You know when people create bogeymen to scare children, and they can be contradictory or nonsensical because they're just designed as momentary threat-creatures to ensure compliant behavior? With Horde Prime, that's what he's like--only he's actually present on screen, doing stuff.
I think it was the ninja girl who said you can do brainwashing cult leader, or you can do merciless conqueror, but you can't really do both together. Cult leaders with brainwashed followers generally don't take over whole countries or continents (or planets), and merciless conquerors are generally much too pragmatic to care about the fine points of the conquered's faith life beyond "fear me." Like Jim Jones and Jonestown is the former, and, oh, Genghis Khan or Napoleon are the latter.
I could have happily watched a whole season of Catra's gradual growth and change, and then another season of building alliances on Etheria against the threat of Horde Prime, and then a season of battle and related shenanigans--with the stakes just being the subjugation of Etheria rather than the destruction of the galaxy/universe.
I did love the way the credits changed, though, to show Catra smiling. That warmed my heart each and every time I saw it.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 02:26 pm (UTC)I could buy Prime wanting to destroy everyone who doesn't adore him (it's a very Stalin move!), but "Destroy everything" makes no sense. There would be no one left to sing his praises then! And the show does do a good job establishing that Prime loves to be surrounded by a chorus of praise.
Also, if he really wants to "destroy everything," his utter failure to kill any named characters looks totally ludicrous. If his goal was "brainwash everyone" (possibly with a side helping of "I'm such a NICE conquerer! I never murder anyone, just brainwash them to love me! That's how you know I'm bringing light to the galaxy"), it would make much more sense that no one gets killed.
And you could still have him throw his little "FINE THEN I'm going to destroy Etheria!" temper tantrum at the end when it's clear he's not going to get his way about the brainwashing. The destruction of Etheria is a plenty large stake! And it would leave him with the rest of the galaxy to adore him.
Threatening the whole galaxy throws off the emotional dynamic between the characters, too. Catra has a point about how Adora should stop sacrificing herself all the time, but it's a point that makes no sense when the alternative is the destruction of THE ENTIRE GALAXY.
I loved the changing credits, too! Although, again, they changed SO fast. It highlighted how swiftly the show was running through plot points that needed more expansion. I get that maybe Netflix only gave them five seasons, but in that case... maybe have Prime show up at the end of season three so we can give two seasons attention to the character arcs afterward?
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 02:58 pm (UTC)And (since we're describing how things might have been), regarding Shadow Weaver, if they had taken the time to show Catra change, and show the forgiveness and warmth coming from that, then maybe Shadow Weaver could have thought about repairing relationships with--well, everyone. "Maybe there's something to friendship even when it doesn't advance my concrete goals."
And yeah, when the entire galaxy is threatened, then all personal concerns go out the window--it's too heavy a weight on the see-saw.
Going back to Horde Prime, if he had presented himself as truly beneficent in some way--but also undefeatable, so "irresistible" in both senses, and then his true colors had shown, I would have found that more threatening and more emotional. Like if his emissaries arrive on Etheria saying, "Oh you poor Etherians, knocked about first by the First Ones and then by my defective clone brother... let me show you the peace and joy you can experience under my rule"--but meanwhile, like, he's secretly sucking the planet dry or something .... but I guess that's a different kind of plot and that one has kind of been done a lot too, upon reflection.
In conclusion: more focus on the main characters and their development. I did like Perfuma's pep talks with Scorpia, and Perfuma sticking up for herself, too. But more Entrapta growth! More Glimmer and Bow so I'm not knocked sideways by them suddenly being a romantic pairing! ... okay, now I'm starting to cannibalize my letter's comments....
no subject
Date: 2020-07-06 03:37 pm (UTC)Don't you think it might have felt repetitious to have Horde Prime try to present himself as a beneficent power, when we already had a similar storyline with the First Ones? For the first few seasons they seem like distant, powerful, basically benign beings, and then we learn (through Light Hope) that they were actually conquerers intent on stripping Etheria's resources.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-06 03:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's why as I was typing out the idea, I backed off--or, I wasn't thinking of the First Ones in particular, but just in general it felt kind of threadbare. I agree it would have been a repeat of that in particular, although frankly I felt like the sense of that re: the First Ones wasn't that strong? I mean, it was undeniably the way things were, but because it had all happened in the past, and because the First Ones we actually encounter--the ones who aren't Adora, i.e., Mara and Light Hope--are either benevolent or have conversion experiences, the sense of them actually as a deadly menace was kind of diluted, for me.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 06:25 pm (UTC)To me it felt that they squashed what could have been twice as long into the final season. I expected a significant time of Glimmer and Catra captive, for one thing... and suddenly rescue and new planets and thrown in new characters. (Not that I'm complaining about Melog!)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-06 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-06 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-06 03:47 pm (UTC)