I’m up to episode 7 in the She-Ra show, and so far it’s definitely enjoyable reminiscent of ATLA and Steven Universe in positive ways. There’s a couple flaws that are kinda nagging at me though that I wanted to try to figure out below:

– There’s a somewhat low level of conflict in the show that I’m struggling to put my finger on. Problems that arise on the good guy side get resolved very quickly, and it deflates a lot of the potential drive and action of the story. 

– My sense is that the creators fell into a trap some people do where they don’t want to hurt their characters too much or have the good guys do anything too objectionable. This isn’t to say that the characters should be at each other’s throats. Quite the contrary, I actually found Glimmer’s ranting and antagonism Adora in the first couple episodes somewhat grating and it lost me some sympathy for her that was hard to get back, because we were just “told” that she suffered because of the Horde, but we never got a clear explanation as to how or why she was blaming Adora, so when she suddenly “forgave” Adora it didn’t feel terribly earned either. She could HAVE real objections to Adora but those didn’t feel properly explored or shifted to the true “cause” of her antagonism towards the Horde. So she just seemed a bit unfairly bitchy towards Adora, and then totally fine with her. On the other hand, Bow was the “good cop” in the scenario which made him likable BUT he’s just… fine. With everything. All the time.

– Everything kinda just resolves as soon as it’s brought up. Glimmer asks her mom to go on a mission, and her mom voices displeasure at the idea but gives in after barely any back and forth on the matter. And she’s never punished seriously for disobeying her mother.

– Glimmer very quickly decides she likes Adora anyway after a day with a few run-ins with her, in a way that felt somewhat plot necessitated but also just “I want these characters to like each other because I don’t want them to face too much conflict” sort of way.

– And the biggest issues I’ve had that made me finally want to write out my thoughts: Adora suddenly fearing the Shadow Weaver and hating the Horde and going along with it when everyone says she’s “free” of them and her life there was terrible. 

– Ok, it makes SENSE for the Horde to have been awful to Adora, but that was never actually demonstrated. Actually, Adora seemed to like her life in the Horde! She had close friends, her own squad, and was rising through the ranks with prestige. Life was hard there, but she had no context to think of it as a bad life. 

– Her motivation to switch sides was that she realized the Horde was on the wrong side of this conflict. She wanted to help make them stand down. But at no point has she examined the Horde’s motivation, or had any on-screen realization of how terrible her life was. She hasn’t compared her life to Glimmer or anyone else in a way that she would see her own as lacking. Her switching sides was more introduced as her finding her own goal and striking out on her own to do what’s right, not “turning against” the Horde as such.

– So in the episode where she’s scared of Shadow Weaver coming after her, it rings of stock cliche of “switching from the bad side out of fear” rather than a natural sequence from where her character’s motivations stem. She could be worried about Shadow Weaver wanting revenge, but Shadow Weaver is a mother figure/commanding officer to her that was never actually shown to Adora as being evil, just on the wrong side of the war. So her fear and Bow’s reassurance that she’s “free” now don’t strike the right note. She’s a deserter and could be afraid of retribution for defecting, but we’ve never been shown her actually be afraid of Shadow Weaver as an abuser rather than simply as a strict figure of authority. It just seemed taken for granted by the narrative in a way that felt endgame/plot forced rather than developing organically from the sequence of events we’ve seen. “They’re evil, so she must be afraid.” instead of what the show demonstrated which was, “Adora realized she was on the wrong side of the fight and struck out on her own to fix a perceived injustice, and may now fear some retribution from her past loved ones that she has no reason to have stopped loving.”

– This is probably one reason that the villains/antagonists in this show like Catra are what make it shine: they’re allowed to have conflict. They’re allowed to disagree with one another in a way that isn’t swept immediately under the rug. Everything between the good guys feels oddly… wishy-washy. They’re not allowed to have real, legitimate conflicts between. They all just love each other soooo much, and Bow takes no real issue ever with when Glimmer is being bitchy and unreasonable. Adora gets carted around by them a surprising amount for a main character and doesn’t seem to have a central focus on what she wants that puts them at any kind of odds. Glimmer feels like the actual protagonist as she has a goal of bringing the princess alliance back together. 

– As said above, the characters don’t need to be at each other’s throats, but they can have legitimate conflict and disagreement. Adora being raised by the Horde could put her at odds with Glimmer in ways that aren’t easily resolved. Glimmer’s mother could actually exact consequences other than grounding her daughter, which feels like a weird consequence in general given that her daughter’s sins are things like not obeying orders and getting people hurt or killed in an actual war, not just staying out late partying.

– Also just the idea of a vacation episode seemed premature. We saw them acquire like… what, 3 princesses, who all just immediately agree to help out as soon as the monster of the week is defeated with no further convincing needed. And suddenly it’s break time! As far as we can tell, they haven’t even put a full school week of effort in yet. It didn’t’ feel earned and made them feel rather lazy. Usually, the “beach episode”, the sigh of relief, is after a great deal of danger and stress, not just a few episodic conflicts that are barely mentioned in the next episode. It’s an episode 16 thing, post mid-season finale, not an episode 7 thing. 

– So far there just haven’t been any serious consequences to mistakes or the stands these characters have made that risked consequences. There’s been very little conflict either. Adora lacks motivation for what she’s currently doing and doesn’t seem to have a strong sense of end goal. The idea of the Horde as just obviously “evil” seems thrust upon her by plot necessity rather than something she figured out on her own. Where would she even get the moral context to reach that conclusion? I would think she’s still in her heart of hearts thinking there’s been a misunderstanding, that she’s worked with good people who are misguided and she has to help halt the war. She’s stated as being somehow abused or treated badly by the Horde but there’s no real evidence of that shown to us or that we get from Adora. 

– I’m still enjoying the show, and I hope it picks up soon. I’m more intrigued by this problem of low drama and conflict because I’m all for arguing that no every show needs constant battle and interpersonal drama to survive, but there is a curious lack of forward motion, a lot of soft episodes but not a lot of sharp episodes to make those episodes feel like sighs of relief. Since I want to have some similar dynamics in my own novel, I’m attentive to the dynamics and what’s being done well, but I’m also alert to things that are weaker than I expected.

Edit: It COULD also be that ep. 7 is just a terrible episode. I checked and it’s a male writer who only did one episode in the season, which would explain not really getting the show and resorting to cliche a lot. Here’s hoping the next episode is better, though that still doesn’t totally absolve the “low conflict” trouble I have with the show.