TTWBN Bonus: Weighing in on the She-Ra Reboot....

She-Ra's a bad mamajama

Stop me if you heard this one - A popular cartoon from your childhood just got green-lit for a reboot. You spend your days speculating what the new series will look like and even have a bit of high hopes that the characters will be featured with the same depth as before with even better character designs and potentially a newer take on the series that may line up with your older sensibilities. Eventually, you see the initial designs don't exactly match up with your expectations and reenact the scene in Blade where Wesley Snipes realized that Deacon Frost had begun taking the final steps to becoming that “ mofo that wants to ice skate uphill “

                          

Today's discussion will center around a certain “Princess of power” and an obsessive need from some to alter what some would consider a “strong female role model” into today's ever-present, ever-changing moral flavor..

whatever that is.

Without further ado, Let's get it on!

A female He-Man? Skeletor once uttered those words after first tangling with She-Ra and yet in the instance of this new reboot those words are hauntingly accurate, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. In order to talk about the current design we of course are going to have to take a trip back to the past to understand the origins of the character.

In 1984 Lou Scheimer. Co-Founder of animation studio. Filmation, and Executive producer of many of Filmation's shows had been approached by Mattel with a proposition; Mattel's Masters of the Universe line had been extremely successful, due to the studio's involvement in helping to gain a foothold in households, and Mattel, due to discovering that 30 percent of the MOTU fanbase had been young girls wanted to create a “sister series” to capitalize on it's female viewers ( Keep in mind, that this is actually how you should handle that situation instead of changing around a series to cater to that small, yet seemingly dedicated segment of the market, but I digress) .

Above: Lou with all his children

In an Animation World Network interview, Lou explains that Filmation in the past had worked on such shows as “The Secrets of Isis”, which was a companion show to Captain Marvel, which eventually resulted in the character becoming a DC comics regular, so they had enough previous experience to create an action show with a female lead, and Mattel at the time had a new idea for a spin-off toy line to Masters of the Universe, but had no idea how to market it. The new toys were  action figures with doll-like features. Life-like hair that could be combed and styled, yet, pose-able joints which made them capable of standing on their own, or for use with with play-sets. ( for the layman Play-sets were set pieces which opened up to create new adventures for your figures.) Lou talks a bit more about it, here.

“Yeah, lets talk about She-Ra. After a year or so of He-Man, Mattel came back to me and said they would like to do something with a girl character. We had done Isis and you had Supergirl, but what could I do to figure out how to do something with He-Man? Maybe it could be a sister that he didnt know existed, something like that! Well it worked. Although Mattel had a bit of a problem, because now they didnt know how to market it. Was it a girls toy in an action/adventure role that is usually reserved for boys? They didnt know what to do. The show took off anyway. It was a hit. It broke all the records. It worked out having He-Mans role in She-Ra. The network knew some of what they were getting, and girls actually already liked He-Man, so despite of the marketing confusion, it worked out great. ”

As Mr. Scheimer stated, She-Ra was a runaway success! It all started with a feature length television event that worked as a backdoor pilot for establishing the new characters in the “Masters” universe. Both Prince Adam and She-Ra's alter ego Adora, were twin siblings who were separated at birth due to a sinister plot to cripple the kingdom of Eternia. The sinister Hordak, escaped with the infant Adora to Eternia's sister planet, Etheria, and raised the child as his own, corrupting her to believe that the Horde's occupation of Etheria was necessary and the great rebellion were the true evildoers.

Due to the inevitable intervention of the Sorceress and by extension, He-Man, Adora discovers the cruelty of Hordak and the Horde, and eventually after gaining her alter ego due to the power of the sword of protection (the companion weapon of He-Man's Sword of Power) becomes the leader of the Great Rebellion and pledges to end the Horde's occupation on Etheria and hopefully after that, return to her family.

More human than a He-Man?

Despite being Twins, Adora, and her alter ego seem to have a different range of abilities from her brother. She-Ra can communicate with animals via telepathy, as well as heal injured animals with her mind. The Sword of Protection also changes into various other weapons and support items to aide her in battle as well as rescue operations. While the sword of protection looks similar to He-Man's Sword of Power, it isn't indestructible. In fact, in the episode “The Stone in the sword”, The damage done to the jewel of the Sword ,due to Hordak's Doom Balloon, prevents Adora from transforming, and sends her on a journey to meet “The First ones” in order repair it. Both He-Man and She-Ra share a strong sense of justice and a fierce loyalty, which due to the show's moral themes is there to give children moral standards to aspire to, as well as deepen the qualities of what makes an actual hero aside from physique and flashiness. Adora, also displays a sense of self reliance that was a reflection of the sentiments of 1980s working women culture.

She-Ra , much like her brother, would only use violence as a last resort, and often thinking through their problems. Adora would also find herself using more strategic means to defeat her enemies. In an episode entitled “Huntara” She found herself facing an intergalactic bounty hunter of the same name ( According to Scheimer, Huntara was inspired by Grace Jones) in a one-on-one battle that sounds much like the ending of 1987's Predator. She-Ra had to outwit her intergalactic opponent, and bested her in hand-to-hand combat before convincing the hunter that she was conned by Hordak into believing that both She-Ra and the Great Rebellion were the bad guys.

Diversity that actually matters

For those of us who grew up in the 80s seeing audiences react to She-Ra was interesting. There are only a few shows that can easily claim that despite being marketed at one demographic, had that fabled cross-over appeal that can boost a shows popularity into the stratosphere. Shows like Rainbow Brite and Gem and the Holograms were quite capable of walking that fine line and was enjoyed by both boys and girls. Recently, the biggest Western animated show that managed to pull this same feat spectacularly, was My Little Pony: Friendship is magic, which does still retain a high number of female viewers, yet has a fiercely dedicated male viewership which can be felt in it's number of conventions, film releases and the like.

According to Lou's Daughter, Erika She-Ra and it's characters gained popularity as a gay icon due to some of the more subversive aspects of the show's characters. To be fair, Bow looks like the love child of Errol Flynn and Freddy Mercury. And images of him and Prince Adam on a horse, does very little in the subtlety department. But he is romantically interested in glimmer so despite his questionable looks he tries to maintain an air of masculinity

oh my god does he tryyyy

Young girls apparently found that She-Ra was better suited to be a mentor than Barbie according to a research study done in 1989 between 17 four-to-six year olds (11 girls and 6 boys). Some of the girls in the focus group She-Ra was quoted to “have the most exciting life of all” as well as “knowing what she wants and how to get it”. Comments from the boys in the group ranged from “Strong and Smart and knows what's happening” to “She doesn't whine or cry”. The most interesting comment was when comparing her to Barbie. One kid commented that “She-Ra's strong and really smart. All Barbie is worried about is wearing her clothes and living in her dream house!”

While the phenomenon of boys playing with girl's toys is often touted as “breaking gender norms” , this is actually normal human behavior. Children actually explore different things that they take interest in as a means of building and balancing their world view. The toys themselves fall into an interesting middle ground being not quite dolls, and not quite action figures, which made them both difficult to stock in stores yet more accessible overall. 

But now that we have the character background, personality and cultural relevance established Let's head on over to see what the new show may have to offer

All that glitters

On first glance of the newly released images of the reboot series. It's quite hard to reign in the audible groans.

One of the biggest issues I've been having with this redesign is it's lack of detail, and overly streamlined presentation to the point of just having an outward look of being generic. Even a side-by-side comparison shows how homogenized  this new version looks compared to the detail of the previous design.

Hank Venture versus 80's glam and sorcery

Why not incorporate the feathered wing design in the shoulder pads instead of making them solid and pointed?

What's up with the androgynous angular features ? 

What is the reasoning behind  changing the lotus symbol into a starburst and incorporating it into the collar?

Is the design supposed to have an Asian theme? because that looks to be the intention

If you were going for an Asian theme why mesh it so sloppily with a minimalist Valkyrie themed tiara?

If you wanted to keep the Valkyrie theme why not go full battle helmet and armor plating? 

Did you even bother to research the character before re-designing her?

Above: The re-designer and her self-insert. 

Sheesh, you could have even taken inspiration from the designs of Joan of Arc or Big Barda to create armor that would better fill the fantasy sword and sorcery backdrop, but sadly enough this seems more closer to an artist rendition of a self inserted character performing cosplay, or to be a bit more on-the-nose about it. It seems like a rather bland and uninspired cosplay of Virgo Shaka from Saint Seiya.

The real insult is likely the fact that the fan-art renditions actually do better to include details, more-so than the actual series, and that says a lot. 

Still a better design..

                                 

The last thing I'll say about She-Ra's redesign is that it suffers from the same issues that some of the redesigns that I've covered in previous TTWBN articles; It's too rooted in our current time period to work as a fantasy setting on a planet far far away from Earth. The biker shorts could have easily been replaced with leggings or a leather waistcloth or waist cape that would impede any possible upskirt shots (something I'm sure is the declared reason for the design change). Leggings and a waist cape that shimmered could add to that regal feel that this updated version seems to be missing, but of course. What do I know?

Adora, meet Rose Quartz and Black Sokka

As far as the additional characters such as Glimmer, who looks like she's an extra from Steven Universe, Catra, who looks as if she should be doting after Van Fanel, and can't possibly be a woman who magically turns into a panther when she slides down her cat-magic mask (clearly that would require better character design), and Bow, who has gone from Token ( Ginger ) male to Token black (Interesting considering Nettossa already held the black representation spot down.) It's almost certain Bow will probably fill the role of comic relief, because i'm sure that's not an overused trope. 

Don't let me catch yo' ass on the street!

While we're on the subject of Glimmer, why is she holding the Sword of protection? Why is that giving off strange vibes of no tie-in with Masters of the Universe, nor any hopes of an updated Secret of the Sword storyline. Then again, maybe that's for the best. 

If you suffer from clinical depression there is help...

I'm sure of course, time will tell what exactly this series is going to be like, and I just am not feeling anything concerning this, but I'm sure one of these nifty strawman arguments will tell me that I never really cared about the series, and that I couldn't possible be genuine in my interests, correct?

Let's get to that..

For the honor of Grayskull

In every one of these situations with reboots, there remains one interesting constant. The arguments against fairly critiquing these shows seems to be less about addressing proper qualms about these programs and more about either misrepresentation of the person making the critique, or just outright mean spirited statements further proving that the person hurling insults really have no leg to stand on.

In this segment we'll be taking actual quotes from social media and taking on each argument one-by-one. shall we begin? 

Marketing data would like to have a word...  

                                                     “It's not for you!”

Ahh yes, the crown jewel of throw-away arguments. A thought terminating cliché used to disregard any level of thinking beyond just accepting something as it is. No critical thinking, no critiquing, no assessment analysis or addressing issues, because in “current year”, Those things are considered an attack on the “artist's” character instead of a means to help address issues in order to go beyond mediocrity and actually attempt to create things that are on the same level as previous works or above what's come before.

You have to remember, dear reader that something you may have found enjoyable in your youth and still have fond memories of to the extent of eventually watching it with your children to share those feelings you had as a child is silly according to people who most likely weren't even alive when that thing first existed. Then, years later, when corporate executive big-wigs revive that thing in an effort to exploit remake a property that was successful in it's heyday in order to duplicate that same success via using your fond memories in order to get you to watch and by proxy bring in new audiences (I.E,your children), keep in mind this has nothing to do with you, what-so-ever.

So if you would please, stop enjoying that property touted back out to tug at your nostalgic heartstrings and try to understand that it's just not made for your consumption.

…

..

..

Please watch the official release and throw money at the merchandising to keep our pockets lined, and to pay off my Cal arts degree.

K-thx-Bye

Me Wonka-ing away from your bullshit

Even with all of this being said, Any form of criticism towards the way these characters or that property are being handled, No matter how valid it may be, will be silenced using the most pathetically basic thought terminating cliché ever made; “this simply isn't for you” .Seriously though, this is the crux of an argument that this writer has been for all intents and purposes calling the “Muh nostalgia” argument. The “Muh Nostalgia” argument stems from the fact that the person accusing you of being “blinded by nostalgia” believes that you for some reason have hazy memories of something that is subjectively “bad” by their standards and despite having instant access to that thing, you only care about it because it's been recently announced. In fact, that person may believe that you never liked that thing in your youth, and it was always deemed terrible until this reboot “fixed the problems” that plagued the original. A rather lazy argument based on assumption and projection. 

“Let the past die, kill it if you have to” isn't so much as a quote from a lazily put together excuse for a Star Wars themed fan fiction masquerading as a film, but it seems to be part of an ongoing philosophy that's been prevalent for quite some time, now. That show you grew up with, that Comic you enjoyed reading in your youth, that film series you grew up watching with your friends and family? Well that's bad, and what we're making now with our current moral standard is a much needed improvement!! Never mind the fact that this new version may lack any basic storytelling elements, because those are tropes that desperately need to be subverted (despite trope subversion creates new tropes in the process if successful ), Or may suffer from reusing the same plot elements as the original, because easter eggs and “ 'member this” level plot retreads will surely keep newer audiences hooked, and heroes need to be deconstructed with minimal effort into the very opposite of their character to prove that they were obviously never the heroes you thought they were, or just vessels for thinly veiled analogies to our current political diatribes. Because surely that will age gracefully. 

I'll take stuff that never happened for 500, Alex

It is a strange sentiment that She-Ra isn't for me, as an adult despite me enjoying it as a child, yet is currently being marketed to my daughter. Keep in mind it's my job as a parent to watch this program with her both as a means of bonding over things we both enjoy, and to vet programs that may influence young developing minds. So suffice it to say, that if I, in my role as a parent, am to be the filter between your propaganda and my child's growing worldview, then that means I'll have to watch this with her much like parents watched cartoons with their kids in years past.

Strangely enough, we often forget that this was the reason why Looney Tunes, as well as other cartoons of the time, were filled with double entendres; to entertain both the child who is laughing at the physical comedy and the adult who's snickering at the subtle adult humor sprinkled in the dialogue. Thinking back it's amusing that now as an adult I can see why my mother shook her head and laughed at some of the humor in Tom and Jerry that was lost on me as a child.

Sick burn! Your 17 cats must be proud 

                                “Sorry you can't perv out to a kids cartoon”

A strawman argument created to deflect valid criticism into an ad hominem attack. This type of attack is not only desperate, and quite childish, it's an easy go-to for anyone who has nothing resembling an counter-argument and just want to silence criticism. 

One tends to wonder where this really is coming from. Professor Geek makes an interesting point when he states that this could be just plain old projection, or a level of ignorance based on not grasping the difference between idealization or sexualization, so let's address that, shall we?

In the past when heroes were created they were often created with the intention of appearing to be at the apex of what we would consider human perfection. The men were considered strong, confident, courageous, and driven by a sense of duty and justice and their outward appearance reflected as such. The women were compassionate, cunning, beautiful and wise beyond their years, and that was also reflected as such. These were the basis for heroic stories and mythological tales.

The definition of Idealization is “to regard or represent something better than in reality” which is why heroes like He-Man and She-Ra look the way they do. He-man is created in the same idealized form as Hercules, Beowulf, or Gilgamesh had been, while She-Ra was based on figures such as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, The Valkyrie of Norse Mythology , as well as the Amazon warrior women of Greek Mythology.

What's equally interesting is that in these idealized forms, the characters are easy for children to aspire to emulate, and be inspired by. As we stated before, He-Man and She-Ra's character are that of people who have strength and power to solve problems, but will also use their wits and intelligence before resorting to violence as a final option. Something that is often taught in Martial Arts as well as conflict mediation and resolution sessions. 

 Much like the thought of you naked. no one wants to see that! 

However, when it's assumed that idealization is just sexualization, it proves two things.

One – the person making the accusation appears to be the one who only sees something for it's sexual nature and not for anything beyond the surface, Which of course is incredibly shallow, and provides nothing of actual intellectual value to the conversation

Two – that person then wants to project their own flawed rationality onto you as a means of defamation and discrediting your possibly valid criticisms, in order to make you appear as the villain they themselves are trying to paint you as.

If anything you would think that this tactic has more to do with them than it does with the subject matter. If all someone sees is sexual undertones, how exactly are they capable of functioning in society? It's like seeing race in everything, you tend to focus more on intent than actually trying to gauge a person's words and character, and thus come off as completely unhinged and incapable of actually using critical thinking in any situation.

“You probably think if She doesn't have big breasts and revealing clothing she's not a real girl”

I guess by that logic Olive Oyl, Pepper Ann, Ashley Spinelli from Recess, and Radical Edward aren't real girls, and yet we clearly have no problems with their designs. Of course, this is a variation of the previous argument. Still presumptuous, still trying to project your own thoughts onto others. Though, since we're here. Let's follow this line of logic to it's eventual conclusion.

No, I'm mad because you wasted a perfectly good Sanford and Son meme on a weak take

By this statement it's assumed that She-Ra's original design, a design that was previously considered a mentor figure to little girls, Better than Barbie by little boys, and an icon to the gay community. Is apparently too revealing for modern audiences.

 Let that sink in for a second.

One of us is going to have to go home and change...

Not even a year ago, people who are railing against She-Ra's original costume were going ga-ga over Gal Gadot's portrayal of Wonder Woman, a character that is practically wearing the same style outfit as She-Ra, but with a different color scheme, and proclaimed her film a masterpiece of subversive feminism. This is equally interesting considering a year prior to that The UN took away Wonder Woman's gender equality ambassador status for practically the same reasons you object to She-Ra's original design!

Children look up to Wonder Woman as much as they looked up to She-Ra, So if one is good why is the other terrible?  Of course this just proves that Feminism as an ideology is a bizarre mess of petty women and strange bouts of “Schroedinger's empowered icon” ! And if anyone is keeping track, this  lack of consistency runs rampant in modern Feminism, and is likely the reason as to why only 18% of Americans identify with the failing ideology. 

Let's also look at the Women's tennis scene, since both Wonder Woman and She-Ra's original designs are actually closer to real world depictions of female tennis outfits, due to the sportiness and range of movement the modern tennis uniform provides. Of course no one has objected to real world athletes wearing those outfits, and I dare you, I triple-dog-dare you to tell Martina Navratilova, Venus and Serena Williams to cover up because what they're wearing is far too revealing for your faux sensibilities.

Above: "revealing" costumes

If a fictional character wearing a mini skirt offends you because you and the media feel as if some dirty old man is pushing sexual undertones onto children, and prompt you to both address this and tell them to stand down and rethink their lives, tell me what exactly are your feelings on some people and that same media praising children for participating in Drag Culture? I mean if we should be outraged for fictionalized “children” (As far as I know there is no exact age given to the characters in this reboot) in presumed sexy clothing, what about real children wearing makeup, a tool that women use as a beauty enhancer for potential mate attraction, and wearing outfits that were made for adult women to accentuate both the shoulders, neckline or bust? 

For you virtue signalers who would like to address actual issues with sexualizing children..

If we're going to go full-on Maude Flanders about an 80's cartoon's choice of clothing, Should we be outraged about children parading around and in some cases actually participating in events that aren't truly meant for children due to their high sexual overtones and actual sexual situations taking place around them? Or is that also an issue that people, particularly parents don't have the right to have a say about, either? 

- I'll see you next bossfight!