lj-writes:

SHE-RA!!!

My childhood is crying and in a good way

They made the show so. much. better in every conceivable way with a better story, more compelling characters and relationships, more diversity, better visuals (magical girl is EXACTLY RIGHT yes!!!), better worldbuilding… like this is such a massive upgrade I can’t even.

And look, I was an 80s girl. I loved She-Ra. I had a She-Ra figure, obviously, Glimmer, Angella, Frosta, She-Ra’s castle, and Mermista’s pool. I was a crazy fankid, okay? The show had great character designs and a simple, strong premise that lent itself to a lot of different adventures, both the canonical ones on screen and the increasingly embarrassing homoerotic scenarios I enacted with my figures as I hit puberty. She-Ra was fun and goofy and amazing, and I will always love it for the endless hours of enjoyment it brought my childhood self.

But the new She-Ra updates the story and characters in a new way. It explores the depths in the original premise that the original show never got around to. Adora’s brainwashing by the Horde and what led her to leave, Catra and Adora’s deep and conflicted feelings, the different ways they reacted to their abusive situation, Glimmer’s fraught relationship with her mother and her thirst to prove herself, Angella’s trauma from loss and defeat, the splintered politics of the realms, poking holes in the idea of a superhero solving everyone’s problems and emphasizing the need for everyone to fight together… I’m only four episodes in but my God this is great stuff. The characters may have gotten younger but the story is far more mature, and I’m blown away.

The new series makes me nostalgic in the best way: by bringing back the good memories but also updating the series with storytelling methods evolved for a new media environment. In the era of reboots and remakes She-Ra is one of the franchises that are doing it right.