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impyDear anxiety, go jump in a lake and leave me alone.
So. I finished She-Ra S2(a?) this morning and I have some disjointed thoughts.
I dislike how short this season is. I'm hoping that it's a case of them splitting the season in half, like Freeform and a lot of cable shows do... but my limited google hasn't really shown anything and if you think my ass is walking into geek/nerd central before having seen the Avengers flick you are sadly mistaken. Spoilers abound and I take no chances, mmkay.
Anyway, the shortness of the season affects it as I don't think there's a way around it once you realize you only get seven episodes right out of the gate. Then again, maybe it's just me.
I found myself empathizing more with the Horde crew this time than I did with the Rebels and I don't know if that was on purpose or if it's simply because Scorpia has become my favorite character by such a wiiiiiiiiiiiiiide margin that my brain has simply ceased to try and care nearly as much about anyone on the Rebel side. But looking back, I really do think S2 spends more time in the Frightzone, or maybe it's better time spent with them than with the Rebels... usually.
With that said, Catra dropped a bit in my opinion. Is it because of how she treats Scorpia and others? I mean, it could be, but that's not really new. It's that I think a lot of it has to do with being told how awesome Catra is, or how sneaky she is, and then she's still very much stuck in the same place she's been for awhile. Until the end, which I'll get to in a few.
I think for the most part, this part of the season has Catra spinning her wheels. She's kind terrible at giant chunks of her job but she's also very good at others. It's not until she's being forced to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island, something she does not want to do, that we really get back to the parts of Catra that felt... real? Okay, her jealousy and growing concern over Entrapta's bond with Hordak also ring very real, but in those scenes I tend to get distracted by how gleeful Entrapta is.
Speaking of Entrapta, I completely forgot the Princess Alliance didn't know she was alive, so it was a bit of whiplash for me to have the first couple of episodes deal with that. I think this is something that would work better for me had I not forgotten that, so maybe on a re-watch. But I also like how Catra plays it up and then Entrapta's like I follow the science and my stuff is here so... I guess I'll stay. Like she's moved on past the being left behind, even if no one else really has. Catra might except that part is still very much a part of her own story (well, being left by Adora) and the good guys are beating themselves up for it. Which they kinda should and kinda shouldn't. I like messy grey areas so this part is fun for me.
Entrapta herself is fun to watch as she delights in everything, though I cannot be on board with people 'shipping her with Hordak. Ew. But otherwise, her gleeful reveal that the snowbound excursion wasn't the failure Catra assumed it was? Fantastic! Her effortless winning over of Hordak by just not being afraid of him because the science was too tempting? Yup, loved that as well.
Scorpia is my fave, as we've already covered, so I'll just say that I'm a little confused as to the sliding scale of dumb they use for her. S1 she seemed to be at least relatively competent at her job, at least on paper. But this season? Yeah, she bounces back and forth on that. If she had hands, she'd be all over the paperwork side of Catra's job but other things that I swear it seems like she should've known completely elude her. In general, this is something I don't like from any series. Figure out what your character should know and what they shouldn't, and be consistent whenever possible. Don't dumb them down for jokes- make the jokes better. But you could also probably argue she's dumber than a box of hammers and I couldn't fully argue with that either so...
Her bonding with Sea Hawk was awesome and I love them. I wish we got to see more of Mermista but I adore her Sea-Ra bit. Bow's episode was both fantastic and incredibly stupid and it hurts me to say that.
George and Lance are adorable... but these two are big on history and knowledge and they... didn't get that their son made up an academy that sounds like something they should have known about, based solely on their interests? That sounds implausible at best. I get that parents are very easily blinded to things they don't want to question too much but it's a school and you'd think they'd have been all over that knowledge arena. I bought this so much more when I initially thought he'd picked a real school and said he went there but no, he made up the school as well.
I did like the part where Bow says he tried telling them but they only listened when he said things they already wanted to hear. Which feels like a line they built an entire episode around, btw.
The everyone envisions Catra differently episode was very cute and very fluffy filler that feels like complete fan-service the first run through. Which it might not if this is simply 2A and there's a B coming soon. But if this is all S2 will ever get, I'm sticking to my "cute, very cute, but..." feeling.
Less cute and more sinister backstory is SW's episode. Micah is Glimmer's dad, si? Which didn't dawn on me til maybe halfway through the episode and then things got really interesting. I like that she spared him, at least then, when things went sideways and it was interesting to see how she went from being more powerful to him to realizing ohshit, he's stupidly powerful... but mine to control if I play this right in pretty much an instant. Which is perfectly SW.
And her playing Catra was also perfectly in line with her character all series long. To be honest, I'm not sure why Catra fell quite so easily for it when everything she's ever known about SW has proven that she favored Adora to the point of distraction. I get wanting to be special to the only parental unit you have, but of the two, I'd expect Adora to have bought the story moreso than Catra. And yes, yes, I get that she bought it because she needed to, what with Hordak replacing her with Entrapta and Adora's defection and all that. I get it. But on Catra's end, it rings a little less true than it does for SW, if that makes sense. Catra lording it over SW that she's a prisoner and using SW's imprisonment to boost her own morale rings decidedly true for Catra. Her falling for SW's last lie, even if she knows it's a lie on some level, doesn't fully work for me.
But it doesn't have to and overall I enjoyed most of the story this go round.
I'm sure I forgot some things but I'm off to figure out whether I dress for the movie theater's inside or the weather outside.
So. I finished She-Ra S2(a?) this morning and I have some disjointed thoughts.
I dislike how short this season is. I'm hoping that it's a case of them splitting the season in half, like Freeform and a lot of cable shows do... but my limited google hasn't really shown anything and if you think my ass is walking into geek/nerd central before having seen the Avengers flick you are sadly mistaken. Spoilers abound and I take no chances, mmkay.
Anyway, the shortness of the season affects it as I don't think there's a way around it once you realize you only get seven episodes right out of the gate. Then again, maybe it's just me.
I found myself empathizing more with the Horde crew this time than I did with the Rebels and I don't know if that was on purpose or if it's simply because Scorpia has become my favorite character by such a wiiiiiiiiiiiiiide margin that my brain has simply ceased to try and care nearly as much about anyone on the Rebel side. But looking back, I really do think S2 spends more time in the Frightzone, or maybe it's better time spent with them than with the Rebels... usually.
With that said, Catra dropped a bit in my opinion. Is it because of how she treats Scorpia and others? I mean, it could be, but that's not really new. It's that I think a lot of it has to do with being told how awesome Catra is, or how sneaky she is, and then she's still very much stuck in the same place she's been for awhile. Until the end, which I'll get to in a few.
I think for the most part, this part of the season has Catra spinning her wheels. She's kind terrible at giant chunks of her job but she's also very good at others. It's not until she's being forced to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island, something she does not want to do, that we really get back to the parts of Catra that felt... real? Okay, her jealousy and growing concern over Entrapta's bond with Hordak also ring very real, but in those scenes I tend to get distracted by how gleeful Entrapta is.
Speaking of Entrapta, I completely forgot the Princess Alliance didn't know she was alive, so it was a bit of whiplash for me to have the first couple of episodes deal with that. I think this is something that would work better for me had I not forgotten that, so maybe on a re-watch. But I also like how Catra plays it up and then Entrapta's like I follow the science and my stuff is here so... I guess I'll stay. Like she's moved on past the being left behind, even if no one else really has. Catra might except that part is still very much a part of her own story (well, being left by Adora) and the good guys are beating themselves up for it. Which they kinda should and kinda shouldn't. I like messy grey areas so this part is fun for me.
Entrapta herself is fun to watch as she delights in everything, though I cannot be on board with people 'shipping her with Hordak. Ew. But otherwise, her gleeful reveal that the snowbound excursion wasn't the failure Catra assumed it was? Fantastic! Her effortless winning over of Hordak by just not being afraid of him because the science was too tempting? Yup, loved that as well.
Scorpia is my fave, as we've already covered, so I'll just say that I'm a little confused as to the sliding scale of dumb they use for her. S1 she seemed to be at least relatively competent at her job, at least on paper. But this season? Yeah, she bounces back and forth on that. If she had hands, she'd be all over the paperwork side of Catra's job but other things that I swear it seems like she should've known completely elude her. In general, this is something I don't like from any series. Figure out what your character should know and what they shouldn't, and be consistent whenever possible. Don't dumb them down for jokes- make the jokes better. But you could also probably argue she's dumber than a box of hammers and I couldn't fully argue with that either so...
Her bonding with Sea Hawk was awesome and I love them. I wish we got to see more of Mermista but I adore her Sea-Ra bit. Bow's episode was both fantastic and incredibly stupid and it hurts me to say that.
George and Lance are adorable... but these two are big on history and knowledge and they... didn't get that their son made up an academy that sounds like something they should have known about, based solely on their interests? That sounds implausible at best. I get that parents are very easily blinded to things they don't want to question too much but it's a school and you'd think they'd have been all over that knowledge arena. I bought this so much more when I initially thought he'd picked a real school and said he went there but no, he made up the school as well.
I did like the part where Bow says he tried telling them but they only listened when he said things they already wanted to hear. Which feels like a line they built an entire episode around, btw.
The everyone envisions Catra differently episode was very cute and very fluffy filler that feels like complete fan-service the first run through. Which it might not if this is simply 2A and there's a B coming soon. But if this is all S2 will ever get, I'm sticking to my "cute, very cute, but..." feeling.
Less cute and more sinister backstory is SW's episode. Micah is Glimmer's dad, si? Which didn't dawn on me til maybe halfway through the episode and then things got really interesting. I like that she spared him, at least then, when things went sideways and it was interesting to see how she went from being more powerful to him to realizing ohshit, he's stupidly powerful... but mine to control if I play this right in pretty much an instant. Which is perfectly SW.
And her playing Catra was also perfectly in line with her character all series long. To be honest, I'm not sure why Catra fell quite so easily for it when everything she's ever known about SW has proven that she favored Adora to the point of distraction. I get wanting to be special to the only parental unit you have, but of the two, I'd expect Adora to have bought the story moreso than Catra. And yes, yes, I get that she bought it because she needed to, what with Hordak replacing her with Entrapta and Adora's defection and all that. I get it. But on Catra's end, it rings a little less true than it does for SW, if that makes sense. Catra lording it over SW that she's a prisoner and using SW's imprisonment to boost her own morale rings decidedly true for Catra. Her falling for SW's last lie, even if she knows it's a lie on some level, doesn't fully work for me.
But it doesn't have to and overall I enjoyed most of the story this go round.
I'm sure I forgot some things but I'm off to figure out whether I dress for the movie theater's inside or the weather outside.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-03 12:59 pm (UTC)Entrapta got some interesting development this season alright. I don't really share the sentiment (I think Hordak/Entrapta is a very intriguing pairing, and while I don't exactly ship it, I understand it's appeal), I must say Hordak seems really... bland so far. I wish there would be more exploration of his character from now on. So far I'm left with the impression of a generic villain doing evil things for the sake of evil. Mayhaps Entrapta's direct involvement would change that or just, I don't know, provide more insight into Hardak's character.
Scorpia is becoming my favorite too and I 100% agree dumbing her down seemed very out of place taking into account her behavior in the last season. I fear they are going to do her dirty for the sake of taking Catra's arc further and I do not like that at all.
Shadow Weaver is a great villain. I expected a little bit more from her backstory, but I wasn't really disappointed by what they decided to present. Perhaps there is more to it, perhaps not. I'm just curious to see what she'll be doing now that she is free. Whenever I see Shadow Weaver I get the feeling that the real villain of the story is not Hordak. (Also let me just fangirl over Lorraine Toussaint's voice for a second because she does an amazing job! She is my favorite voice actor in the whole show.)
I hope you don't mind me hopping on your post. I love She-Ra and I found your thoughts very interesting and coherent so I wanted to share a little bit of mine as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-03 01:46 pm (UTC)"okay but can we go back to the Horde now?" I love it! Also, I'm fairly certain I thought the same thing for that episode.
I'm not sure whether to be happy someone else noticed the dumbing down (yay, it's not just me) or sad that it means it is an actual thing. Considering how much she's choosing to tie her fate to Catra's, I worry. Also, yay for Scorpia love! ♥
Shadow Weaver is absolutely the real villain. Y'know, til Hordak manages to open a portal or twelve with Entrapta's help and go on a world dominating spree the likes of which the universe hasn't seen since he somehow got stuck on Etheria. And even then, at this moment in time, her ties and manipulation of Catra and Adora definitely put her ahead of Hordak because we care about them. And I am fully on board with that. Some of that might be because I've loved Lorraine Toussaint for ages so I'm partial to her characters on that basis alone.
I absolutely do not mind. The more the merrier! Also, icon love!