Honestly she ra destroyed the trope of the men to women ratio, poc to white people ratio in just what, 13 episodes ??
Usually when you have groups , like the five man band group , there’s usually a ratio of maybe 0.5-1 woman to 1 man , making it so there are three men and maybe two women and if there isn’t , a man fills that extra role.
Its even called explicitly a five man band trope which just … says so much of how dominant it is.
It’s even less for poc where they hardly even show up in these tropes , being on an average of 0.27-0.96 to show up , such as in like scooby doo and the avengers and the ninja turtles and many other pieces of literature that feature some element of a group dynamic.
In she ra however, there’s two – three of you count hordak – human men in the entire cast of characters. Three. Everyone else is perceived to be female-identified, at least in my opinion. That’s insane. And I know that’s indicative to cast of the original she ra where the entire main cast was mostly female but that’s still the same franchise , at least the she ra one as I haven’t watched he man. I don’t know many – if any at all – others that have incorporated this , but I’m only eighteen and I haven’t consumed a wide range of media like this , and this could even branch out into themes of western and eastern media that I’m not aware of that have female-dominated tv shows and movies
But , from the media I know , I’ve never seen it before and it amazes me and makes me so proud of this show already.
Not to mention , if shows have an element of this kind of group dynamic , such as my little pony , the writers will sacrifice the femininity of the female characters in order to have them fill a perceived masculine role. An example of this that I can think of off the top of my head , because this is all just free speech as I go , is the pony ( rainbow dash I think ?? Idk ) in my little pony who has such a boisterous and loud and domineering personality in comparison to her friends in order to fill the ‘hotheaded, fly off the handle, muscle’ of the group. That’s not to say that girls can’t be like this at all , nor that this is a definite and set in stone boys-only trope , but she’s there to be the reckless one , one that’s usually attributed to the perceived brute of a five man band , which sacrifices the femininity that she could’ve had. I haven’t watched my little pony enough to actually attribute this to her character though so I may be completely wrong , but as of right now , that’s how this character seems to me.
But the thing is , with she ra , the writers didn’t do that.
Adora is the muscle / co-leader of the group , both of which are usually attributed to a boy , or if a female adopts these tropes , she is usually cold and strict , nicknamed the trope of ( literally this is what it’s called ) ‘a bitch,’ a lot like Emily Blunts character in edge of tomorrow being legitimately nicknamed ‘full metal bitch’ in comparison to the other male characters that were captains similar to her. But this didn’t happen – adora experiences the world of the princesses like a child , is allowed to freak out and be unsure whilst she’s still able to give orders and direct people , at least when she turns into she ra , and no one acts as if she’s on her high horse from a bit of a taste of authority. She gets upset and angry and it isn’t written off as emotional or that she’s whiny – because this is a kids show about child soldiers.
All these characters are practically babies in a war and like in my child soldier post from months ago , we’re far too used to seeing this kind of reaction , where children go cold and strict in the face of war , but that’s another post.
Similar to bow. Bow is definitely not the masculine stereotype – he freaks out , cries , his voice cracks so many times which isn’t a masculine trait that’s seen as positive , but rather seen as a weakness in media. He wears hearts in everything he wears for gods sake. It’s so strange and amazing to see a character like bow , as where the heart of the team is usually the female , bow takes up the mantle. Not to mention he’s poc and he isn’t made to seeem lesser than adora or glimmer , or even any of the other supporting princesses that aren’t poc – there was a whole episode surrounding him and others that didn’t fit the norm of the white , muscle toned and cool headed hero – kitchen staff that were fat , that didn’t brandish knives in combat but god damn soda bottles and won the fight , that were poc and small in stature and probably the strongest one there during that episode other than bow. And every single one was shown to be , as he said , “warriors of the rebellion.”
– every single one , that were made with attributes that the media has keyed as ‘weaknesses,’ was named a hero. In one entire episode about them.
He’s never shown to be lesser and he’s never shown to be ‘the token boy’ or the ‘token black kid,’ which really flips around the trope of ‘the token female / love interest’ that happens in media.
I could keep going on about characters like glimmer and mermista and hell , even shadow weaver , but this post is long and I’m cooking an oven pizza. I just noticed how she ra fully broke down multiple tropes in just 13 episodes that other cartoons have been staggered by for years and that’s really , really special to me.
during that first battle against the horde when Adora transforms into She-ra and she’s glowing the whole time she also acts very differently from herself; very like serious and powerful and intense. and after the fight she says to Glimmer that “it felt a little out of control last time”.
i firmly believe that there is a spirit of she-ra, the spirit thats been passed down for generations and needs a “host” (aka adora now), and that if Adora were to let go of all of her attachments like she was told to we would lose the Adora we know and she would fully become the spirit of she-ra- aka that fierce warrior we saw when she glowed
Tayla's photography 