november 13, 2018 saw the release of she-ra and the princesses of power on netflix. this show is a reboot of 1980's she-ra: princess of power. created by nd stevenson , the show follows adora and catra. soliders of the tyrannical horde, they live a hard life training under shadow weaver. one day adora and catra find themselves lost in the whispering woods. after a series of mishaps, adora gains posession of the sword of protection and turns into the legendary protector she-ra! after this, adora and catra find themselves seperated. adora leaves the horde for the rebellion, swapping the drab atmosphere of the fright zone for the vibrant looks of bright moon. catra, however, grows bitter after being left for the princesses they were raised to hate. the story continues from this point with both women on opposite sides of a war, primarily focusing on the heated conflicft they have as their history interferes with their goals.
i started watching spop on march 31st, 2019. (and that information is fact checked... i am dedicated to documentation when possible o7)
i started watching this pre-quarantine, but i remember my interest really starting to deepen in the winter (so late 2019-early 2020). the s5 release was a big deal for me! this was one of many shows i was watching "with" my best friend, so i vividly remember us anticipating the new season and talking about it at school.
my favorite episode was save the cat, which had the biggest emotional impact on me. i'm not much of a crier, but this episode genuinely had me on the floor in front of the tv. not crying, but visibly distraught at the state of my favorite character. i was surprised that they would depict such pain in a children's show, and even more surprised by how much i was moved by it. i attribute having such a connection to a character to the way i was able to watch the show at a steady pace (instead of binging the whole thing) as well as how connected i felt to the characters based on the new possibilities i was being presented to. which brings us to:
around the time in my life that i was watching this i had just discovered what gay people were. yes, i'm not joking, i just straight up didn't know and no one told me. so as a result i was pretty deep in the "figure out your identity" phase of my life, as most middle schoolers are lol. spop had a pretty big impact on me as the first lgbtq+ media i consumed, especially considering that the main characters are canonly married lesbians. being able to see that on tv finally knocked into my brain that if i desired as much, i could marry a woman in the future. looking back, i'm really happy i was able to experience a show like spop in such an important phase of my life identity-wise!
it's time to talk about my fandom experience. which, if i'm being honest, is incredibly miniscule! crazy left turn. i wasn't allowed on most social media until 2020, so i didn't interact much until the end of the show. i made a few flipnote fan mvs on the show (mostly catradora, mostly forever unfinished in my ds files) but i spent the majority of my time accumulating a whopping ~3,900 pins on a she-ra pinterest board. in that time i saw su_ggushi and artofkace's fanarts the most. i still love their artstyles, the amount of detail they put into their fan work is truly impressive!
on the topic of fanwork, i did see a handful of fan-compliations on youtube despite not being allowed on the site lol. she-ra on crack and "x minutes of x" type edits were truly the backbone of my existence at the time and i salute those who made the videos a reality o7
i really liked the way the show handled their characters and their arcs for the most part. you may want to take this with a grain of salt though, i havent rewatched the show in it's entirety since i originally finished it. ofc, my favorite character is catra, as i could relate to her and i am also a huge sucker for cats. i thought the way they handled her was very interesting and tbh i was loving every second she was on screen. although i didn't relate to adora as much, i genuinely enjoyed following her for the majority of the show and the way she took back her destiny. also she's just a silly buff gay horse girl! what's not to like!!! tbh i don't really have much to say past that... although i do wish that some minor characters got more background (double trouble origin story please). but even though they don't get that it isn't necessarily needed, it would just be cool!
now, about ships... i was quickly a catradora fan from the start. it was clear to me that something was there, and that was only solidified by episodes like princess prom. i am a huge sucker for tragic love stories so the first few seasons were like pure drugs to me or something haha. high tension eps like the one in the crimson waste or with corrupted adora were great, but save the cat? absolute insanity for me. i was HOOKED. glimbow had less of an impact on me, i was more focused on the novel stuff at the time. i thought they were a cute couple though, longtime friends to lovers doesn't always work well so i'm glad the pairing didn't seem to take away from their characters before. i know there are a lot of poly ships in the fandom (ex: glimcatradora or whatever it's called) but those never really clicked with me bc glimbow and catradora seemed perfect on their own. kyle, rogelio, and lonnie are totally dating tho. the egg! the egg!!! i think the only thing i'll always wish for is some more story of netossa and spinerella. they're so cute... (also sea hawk and mermista's interactions were SO funny to me at the time i love them)