owlectomy | My Thoughts on the ending of She-Ra

I never watched the original She-Ra. But the rebooted She-Ra does a pretty fantastic job of being both fresh and nostalgic, evoking the same intensity of emotions that I had watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Darkwing Duck when I was eight or nine - or Sailor Moon when I was fourteen. It strikes a great balance between being a slightly winking update of an 80s cartoon that existed only to sell toys, and playing it completely straight. (No pun intended). And the last couple of episodes are frankly quite masterful from a plotting perspective - the sheer number of different plot threads that get pulled together and resolved!

But man, the pacing of the last couple of episodes was fast. I think that was a series that desperately needed more than two minutes of epilogue. Especially the Catra/Adora relationship.

The first four seasons of She-Ra are an incredibly thoughtful and incisive and empathetic portrait of someone who's been damaged so deeply that they don't know how to give love or accept love. Catra is mean because she doesn't believe that anyone wouldn't abandon her, she's mean because if she pushes people away, at least it makes sense when they abandon her. She is mean to put the people who care about her to the test, to put them in a double bind - either they leave, or they prove themselves to be foolish and pathetic and not worthy of being cared about.

That feels real to me. And what feels real to me, too, is the emotional journey Adora goes through of knowing that it's not Catra's fault that she's grown up the way she has... but Adora can't count on the power of friendship, can't count on being able to rescue Catra, has to reconcile herself to them being enemies.

That's not to say that I'm unhappy at the way it worked out. I don't have a heart of stone! But that is not emotional damage that you can resolve in the space of four episodes. And the show, I think, makes some good gestures toward acknowledging that. But it still feels rushed. And it feels very simple, compared to the complicated portrait of Catra that we got in the beginning. And if we are supposed to buy it as an uncomplicated happy ending... maaaaybe? But right after Best Friends Squad Road Trip is done, I think Glimmer needs to pull Adora aside and find her a recommendation for a good trauma therapist and a good couples counselor.