It's everyone favorite, Grayskull power hour #3 and WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT STORY STRUCTURE IN CARTOONS IN A VERY SERIOUS MANNER WHILE HAVING A LITTLE FUN.ALSO CATRA IS AWFUL. SKELLTOR IS BEST BOY. 
All right so I've now at this point saw the first season of She Ra vs the first half of He-man season 1. I could have sworn it more divided up but whatever they will end up being the same episode count by the end. they show interesting contrasts and that's fun.
She ra's writes characters with goals in mind. They have an idea of where they want them, but how we get them there is another matter entirely and doesn't matter as long as we are there. You want proof let's talk about Frosta.
Frosta in the first season is really bad. First thing we see her do is host a prom and is kind of serious to everyone and does not want to be an ally. She just randomly shows up to help at the end of finale and helps the princesses against the Horde.
The problem with the princess compared to the Masters, is the Master are in almost every episode, and we also seem them hang out together more, when they do the big freindship power thing in She ra it's like how vs when the masters support each other you know they are bros.
Glimmer and Bow besides are the only character in all the episodes, and when we see the princesses actually work together for the first time together it's a fucking disaster. It's also rather contrived and god She-ra season 1 has such a bad end game.
She-ra also tends to flip on comedy and drama so often I get whiplash from it. I don't mind tone change but when the heroes think Entrapta's dead and it's a serious moment because there ally is dead but the show didn't kill her so now WACKY SHENANIGANS!
ALSO ENTRAPTA FEELS BETRAYED BY HER FRIENDS LEAVING HER BUT THEY THOUGHT SHE DIED SO SHE BAD GUY NOW, just have her start on the bad guys side jesus. It's a muddled mess of an arc.
I'm going to be honest this could change in the future with later She-ra episodes but He-man so far has better and consistent characters as of now. It also tries to hint at character issues before focus episodes take over. Let's talk about Mekaneck.
Meckaneck has the aquaman perception and they write it into his character, before his focus episode we hear that Mec hates his power and wishes he had something cooler like ANYONE ELSE. Even Flying which two of the master have.
This leads to him fucking up and having to fix it and saving the day. This happens in one episode but is a much more coherent character arc and compared to the Princess is given a lot more depth to him. What I'm saying the guy with neck powers is a more coherent then Catra.
Right now Catra is the villain who given depth because she feel bad about things and lashes out against people because sister issues. Yes I'm calling it sister issues meanwhile Skelltor who is not deep at all...is just more fun to watch to me.
There is an entire episode of He-man where Skeltor is force to act nice or get weaken himself. His line are fantastic, and the show ends with a lesson that you can't force People to be good, or something else. He's also get zapped and he is hilarious.
Now my favorite part of this process. DO I KNOW WHAT A PRINCESS IS YET AFTER....11 episodes they actually explain it. Kind of. I'm still unsure of this fucking thing. BECAUSE SOMEONE DID NOT LOOK AT THEIR VISUALS.
He-man's lore fill you in as you go along, with She-ra season 1 they PUT IT ALL AT THE END SO THEY HAVE TO WASTE A LOT OF TIME EXPLAINING SHIT TO YOU. He-man doesn't overwhelm it's just hey you need to know this for this episode.
The problem with the princess stuff they define it and then add a fucking wrinkle to it that makes you stop and think. You can see Scorpia and Entrapta silhouette there and the show says Princesses get their power from runstones, then the show says THEY DON'T HAVE THEM!
Like your trying to make consistent lore, I get it, but the fucking brother show make shit up like Shadowbeasts all the time somehow I know what a Master of the Universe is compared to whatever the fuck the princesses are.
Now let's talk about the male characters because this is something to note...they are all kind of written better then some of the female characters and I think it's about time to show that I can actually praise this show a little.
Swiftwind when he is revealed to talk is given a wonderful speech to She-ra about saving people by actually helping them and not just taking yourself out of a situation. It's the highlight of the first season for me. I just wish he was in more episodes.
Mostly because they have to write him in so last minute that he's just sense She-ra is in trouble and has to help her when I think he should have been added to the cast earlier to make his speech to Adora have more weight to it.
Bow does get talked a lot in these threads because I have nothing against him in the slightest. He's the most sensible in the show despite fanboy tendencies and the only thing that's a problem is I don't know how he can stand Glimmer.
Hordak I know get development later but I feel disappointed on some level. Hordak is she-ra traditional arch villain yet he's never given this cool moment with Adora yet. But he did promote Catra for GETTING SHIT DONE. Skelltor would be proud.
Now lets talk about He-man's story structure, She-ra is maid in the netflix age so episodes can matter less if they are part of the great whole, He-man was 2002 and it has what I call a half-serial nature. It's episodic but you can't really watch any episode.
Why? Because they sprinkle in either character moments or lore that make it better to watch episode production order. Take Evil Lynn for example.
Lynn is revaled in one episode, an episode about Orko confidence mostly, that she is the daughter of the Faceless one a guardian she stole from in the episode. She give the artifact back at the end because she still loves her father.
Now let's get to the grand finale with this Catra aka HOW NOT TO WRITE A ROMANTIC PARTNER OR LOVE INTEREST. Okay I'm keep calling it a sister thing in this overview because they just don't read as romantic to me. It's mostly because of fucking Shadow Weaver.
It's mostly because Catra just fucks over Adora to appeal to authority, it's either Hordak or Shadow Weaver loved her too much. They treat Shadow Weaver as her mom in the show so sorry they come off like Sisters to me, incestuous lesbian sisters.
Look if they wanted to have Catra be the love interest, just have her be someone new in She-ra life like they met when they were 11 or 14. Then Explore Catra's feeling for Adora as this new person in her life. But as of now Catra reads as a jealous sister.
They also hava a dragged out fight at the end of the season. It's treated more seriously then any other fight show so far, I was brought in to write about a toxic relationship and I can probably write 10 articles alone on the first 13 episodes on why they should not be together.
I'm going to have to see how the show handles its from here but highlights.
-Adora is the only one who tries to fix things
-Catra fucks over Adora for more power in the horde
- She uses her claws on her
-Catra fucks over other people to fuck over adora.
-Adora is the only one who tries to fix things
-Catra fucks over Adora for more power in the horde
- She uses her claws on her
-Catra fucks over other people to fuck over adora.
I'm not a councilor but I end up advising many young people on things, without getting too personal I often end up helping people through shit like this because of what I do. So I know about Toxic realtionships in real life.
This is not my personal blog, but often when I tell people, be careful when you hang out with certain people because you can revert. This means that the person bring out the worst in you and until you both realize it it's better to leave then to help.
Now not to say they don't try to make it romantic, the Prom episode is flirty as fuck. But then she kidnaps her friends to fuck over Adora and this bring up other tropes I'm going to probably to talk about in another thread. I didn't think she would be THIS BAD right away.
This is really bad but I'm going to talk about execution and fans perception cause this is important whenever I talk about works. He-man vs She-ra will now get a comparison, not as shows but against each other.
The reason I used an old picture there is to bring up a point about ideas and using them. You see She Ra is traditionally thought by the hardcore fans of MOTU as a darker character because she was raised by the horde and fights in a rebellion.
I'm not saying she isn't, but this why execution is important because She-ra in the show has the same backstory but He-man in his show is a darker character despite being the same in his old show. A prince who turns into superman. How?
Simple they bring up an idea from the old and show them how they effect him, in the old show Adam was portrayed with traditional secret identity stuff doesn't matter because I know I'm he-man and I'm confident in myself! The new show added layer to this.
Adam in the new show HAS TO CONSTANTLY DISAPPOINT EVERYONE AROUND HIM. His Dad thinks he terrible and probably wonders if his kingdom will fall to ruin, Teela thinks she's always going to protect him, and this naws on him.
To one episode where he tries to avoid being He-man, He-man in this show is a man who constantly sacrifice his ego for the greater good. Knowing no one will respect him as king, but he does it because it's the right thing to do.
She ra is much more rushed to get there thing.
-Horde is bad because I have moral...even though I was raised in the horde.
-I'm a princess, even thought I think they're freaks of nature
-The rebellion are my best friends, despite only knowing them for an hour.
-Horde is bad because I have moral...even though I was raised in the horde.
-I'm a princess, even thought I think they're freaks of nature
-The rebellion are my best friends, despite only knowing them for an hour.
She-ra by her fans is often said to be adding depth to this franchise but I think it's just adding a fan fiction style story to it. He-man and She-ra already had depth and backstories. It doesn't impress me in comparison.
I do think She-ra has an esthetic people want, that they don't get with regular He-man or She Ra, but to claim the show adds something when I can write about Mekaneck self esteem issues compared to Glimmer mom issues should tell you that.
Keep in mind with He-man that most episodes are action set pieces, but at the same time the problem with how She-ra is in COMPARISON is that they write so much but say so little. A lot of the morals in the first season ARE WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER TO FIGHT THE HORDE!
One episode to highlight in this regard is Teela's focus episode, after having to get a blood transfusion with her mom the Sorceress who she doesn't know is her she's the ability to read minds.
After the whole thing resolves we dive into the sorceress at the end of the episode who is accused by Man At Arms of not actually loving her daughter throughout the episode, at the end of it, he says this "You love your daughter more then I thought"
She replies "No I love her more than you can ever know" THERE THAT IS HOW YOU WRITE A COMPLICATED MOM ISSUES STORY FUCK GLIMMER AND HER BEING GROUNDED ALL THE TIME!
When I have something else to say about General Nepotism I will, but I need to point this out. Her mom sent her dad to die apparently against the Horde which is dramatic but it really doesn't jive with how Glimmer has been portrayed at the this point.
This will be it for now just know that Mekaneck with his robot neck powers is a better character then Toph with ice powers. He-man wins this round.
Oh NO! I forgot these two shown up! Don't worry the narrative did too. Seriously why were they even there.
