Hot take machine

[digsdigsdigs]

maybe She-Ra will make coalition-building cool again ~~

Seriously though, digs aside, it was surprising and sweet to see show so focused on portraying the moment when you realize I was scared to act but it feels terrific [to punch Nazis and fight settler colonialism]. Practically every fight scene has a few characters who are being newly introduced to the power of collective action, whether it's a Princess who's finally seeing the potential of an alliance for her kingdom, or a non-magical civilian who had been too scared to resist the Horde. By the end they're saying, as Princess Frosta does after the final battle, We did that together! (Or, like Perfuma, will I be able to punch more people with flowers?) 

It's a surprisingly realistic depiction of the process of becoming organized, in the political sense -- as my union pals would say, "capacity-building." Starting from a bunch of people with a shared problem (uh, the Nazis with the big army) but dealing with them separately, and from there building a sense of common cause, getting that initial spark of faith that you can actually do something about it besides surrender, developing your relationships to one another, practicing how to respond to problems together, getting excited about it which is a crucial feature of building the emotional and moral resilience for the long haul -- needless to say I was surprised to see it coming out of DreamWorks.

Anyway we can hope for a flowering of fandom interest in tough women wearing good suits.

Comments

[lettered]

Yes, to all of this! I really hope there is more in the next season about the positive power to do change such an organization can generate, but also stuff about the difficulties of holding it together.

[digsdigsdigs]

Yeah! I'm hopeful so far. I like the way they've set up the princesses as explicitly an alliance of independent powers, with different magical strengths, geographies, histories with the Horde, etc. Frosta and Scorpia already show some of the potential for strategic calculations -- one princess who sees herself as "apart" geographically and to some extent politically from the rest of the alliance, one who's already surrendered and thrown her lot in with the other side.

Another aspect I thought was really interesting was the choice to make this a "second wave" rebellion -- it gives all the characters a chance to reflect explicitly on how they want to deal with their parents' efforts and mistakes in creating the first princess alliance. To me it plays really explicitly into the present-day resonance of the show talking to young people who are aware of an American tradition of activism that may feel distant, lapsed, or failed; "but this isn't our parents' alliance!"

They've built so many interesting aspects in already, I really want to see how they develop them!

[hebethen]

Interesting! I'd cottoned on to the Power of Friendship angle, but not quite to this. I can see it now.

[teaforlupin]

Oh, that's a really interesting take when you put it like that... I'm definitely enjoying the show so far (and if punching people with flowers were a thing I'd definitely get in on that... but I guess I'm kind of trying to do the same thing in a small way, just by being my queer gardening self at school? or maybe I'm just flattering myself and not really trying hard enough. I never really know, with this sort of thing...)

Anyway, She Ra! Fun! Best Friends Squad 4eva!

[fairynaughts]

I kind of lapsed in my watch a couple of months ago, but hearing it put like this makes me want to at least finish the first season, because I did like the frames of the narrative.

(I think I got wary when Stevenson mentioned she was a Smallville person and once I know people's (literal literary) preferences in fandom, I GET REALLY CHOOSY AFTERWARD)