She-Ra 1x03-05
Feb. 22nd, 2019 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsShe-Ra 1x03: Razz
I mostly found that one kind of boring, maybe I wasn’t as in the mood to watch it as I thought or maybe it was just bland and meh. It’s not as if I need every story to be action heavy, in fact the action parts were at least as boring as the other parts, I just need something to connect to that I didn’t have here.
This did sort of address my potential complaint last time by making She-Ra a bit less of a god mode than she seemed before; powerful is okay, but still needs to face danger.
But it still feels like a very shallow exploration of Adora’s journey. This doesn’t mean they’re done dealing with her having issues with changing sides and leaving behind the life she knew, but so far it hasn’t been given a whole lot of weight.
At this point I definitely feel that the show is geared towards a younger audience, without a whole lot of care towards having an older one. Not having seen the old show, I don’t know how much it touches on nostalgia, but its storytelling is very much for kids. Which is fine, and in that case older fans should probably deal with it, since the old show was also undoubtedly geared to young fans, todays old fans were just young then. I don’t see the need for it to be controversial, but I also wouldn’t likely recommend it to anyone over ten at this point.
She-Ra 1x04: Flowers for She-Ra
This was sort of a weird episode; basically everytime I would find myself thinking “I’m starting to get into this, that is a pretty decent episode,” it would inevitably do something ten seconds later that I had to side-eye. It is the best episode of the series so far; but there were definitely times when I would find the animation weird and I’m already tired of the power-up sequence. It finally sets up the plot premise for the show; but I don’t think it earns a lot of its turns or its character moments.
I’d almost say I liked it, even in spite of my issues with it; if it continues at this level I would at least be more comfortable recommending it to kids though probably still wouldn’t for older viewers.
Though, while I’m not quite put off by it yet, I have a niggling feeling that was grown a lot this episode since we were seeing more of the world for the first time. If the genders were reversed, everyone would call this super sexist; there are very few men and they’re mostly kind of dumb. I don’t know if that was the way it was in the original show and this is just continuing that, or if this is a deliberate choice for this show. Making sure to have lots of women in power is fine with the premise of the show, and they don’t make the men douchey, but it’s still kind of sexist to choose a gender superiority world over one of equality. If it doesn’t get any worse, I’ll probably make peace with it, and it could end up leading to a greater point with so little established; so I’ll deal with this nag for the moment.
She-Ra 1x05: The Sea Gate
I’m a little torn on this one, because I kind of hated all the characters, but it did enough things right that I can’t quite say I hated the episode. Much as I like Heather on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Mermista being basically the same character except less nuanced really doesn’t work for this world. Seahawk wasn’t terrible, he is completely obvious conman making the leads look like idiots; but mainly he doesn’t really fit in this story either and a square peg made to fit in a round hole is going to be a bit grating. And the leads are by turns annoying and useless; Glimmer gets a couple of okay moments, including my favorite moment of the episode, but very little was accomplished character-wise here.
I also notice in the episode, that there is terrible world building in this show. Five episodes in and I’m being generous if I say there’s been hints of how this world works. It’s part of my problem with Mermista, her tone and attitude are far too modern and don’t reflect the type of world we’re supposed to be in here. Again, to make comparisons to Avatar, five episodes in we already understood a little about each of the four kingdoms; and the characters talked and behaved like they lived in the world we were seeing. There could be a modern tone at times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes feeling a little like a slip-up, but mostly it fit within the world we saw. No one here feels real.
Much as I like that we didn’t have to sit through the power-up sequence this time, even though She-Ra showed up a few times, I guess it’s indicative of Adora barely seeming to be in this episode. She’s around, but she’s not a character. Also, I really wish she would get a new outfit; the show has been making a big deal out her clothes being obviously a Horde uniform, why is she still wearing it? I meant to bring that up last time but it slipped my mind.
I mostly found that one kind of boring, maybe I wasn’t as in the mood to watch it as I thought or maybe it was just bland and meh. It’s not as if I need every story to be action heavy, in fact the action parts were at least as boring as the other parts, I just need something to connect to that I didn’t have here.
This did sort of address my potential complaint last time by making She-Ra a bit less of a god mode than she seemed before; powerful is okay, but still needs to face danger.
But it still feels like a very shallow exploration of Adora’s journey. This doesn’t mean they’re done dealing with her having issues with changing sides and leaving behind the life she knew, but so far it hasn’t been given a whole lot of weight.
At this point I definitely feel that the show is geared towards a younger audience, without a whole lot of care towards having an older one. Not having seen the old show, I don’t know how much it touches on nostalgia, but its storytelling is very much for kids. Which is fine, and in that case older fans should probably deal with it, since the old show was also undoubtedly geared to young fans, todays old fans were just young then. I don’t see the need for it to be controversial, but I also wouldn’t likely recommend it to anyone over ten at this point.
She-Ra 1x04: Flowers for She-Ra
This was sort of a weird episode; basically everytime I would find myself thinking “I’m starting to get into this, that is a pretty decent episode,” it would inevitably do something ten seconds later that I had to side-eye. It is the best episode of the series so far; but there were definitely times when I would find the animation weird and I’m already tired of the power-up sequence. It finally sets up the plot premise for the show; but I don’t think it earns a lot of its turns or its character moments.
I’d almost say I liked it, even in spite of my issues with it; if it continues at this level I would at least be more comfortable recommending it to kids though probably still wouldn’t for older viewers.
Though, while I’m not quite put off by it yet, I have a niggling feeling that was grown a lot this episode since we were seeing more of the world for the first time. If the genders were reversed, everyone would call this super sexist; there are very few men and they’re mostly kind of dumb. I don’t know if that was the way it was in the original show and this is just continuing that, or if this is a deliberate choice for this show. Making sure to have lots of women in power is fine with the premise of the show, and they don’t make the men douchey, but it’s still kind of sexist to choose a gender superiority world over one of equality. If it doesn’t get any worse, I’ll probably make peace with it, and it could end up leading to a greater point with so little established; so I’ll deal with this nag for the moment.
She-Ra 1x05: The Sea Gate
I’m a little torn on this one, because I kind of hated all the characters, but it did enough things right that I can’t quite say I hated the episode. Much as I like Heather on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Mermista being basically the same character except less nuanced really doesn’t work for this world. Seahawk wasn’t terrible, he is completely obvious conman making the leads look like idiots; but mainly he doesn’t really fit in this story either and a square peg made to fit in a round hole is going to be a bit grating. And the leads are by turns annoying and useless; Glimmer gets a couple of okay moments, including my favorite moment of the episode, but very little was accomplished character-wise here.
I also notice in the episode, that there is terrible world building in this show. Five episodes in and I’m being generous if I say there’s been hints of how this world works. It’s part of my problem with Mermista, her tone and attitude are far too modern and don’t reflect the type of world we’re supposed to be in here. Again, to make comparisons to Avatar, five episodes in we already understood a little about each of the four kingdoms; and the characters talked and behaved like they lived in the world we were seeing. There could be a modern tone at times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes feeling a little like a slip-up, but mostly it fit within the world we saw. No one here feels real.
Much as I like that we didn’t have to sit through the power-up sequence this time, even though She-Ra showed up a few times, I guess it’s indicative of Adora barely seeming to be in this episode. She’s around, but she’s not a character. Also, I really wish she would get a new outfit; the show has been making a big deal out her clothes being obviously a Horde uniform, why is she still wearing it? I meant to bring that up last time but it slipped my mind.
