She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

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Fandom
Name: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Abbreviation(s): She-Ra, SPOP
Creator: ND Stevenson
Date(s): November 13, 2018 – present
Medium: Cartoon
Country of Origin: USA
External Links:
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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an animated web television series (a Netflix Original Series) that reboots the She-Ra: Princess Of Power franchise.

Canon

To according Wikipedia: The series follows Adora, an orphan raised by Hordak, the tyrant who rules the planet Etheria through his evil Horde. One day, after getting lost in the woods, Adora finds a magic sword that transforms her into the Princess of Power, She-Ra. Realizing the suffering that the Horde has inflicted on the planet and its people, Adora joins a resistance group of other magical girls, the Princess Alliance, in order to liberate Etheria from Hordak's grasp. This pits her against her former comrade Catra.

Main Characters

Supporting Characters

Fandom

She-Ra's fandom started with a focus on fanart as artists responded to the redesigns each character was given.[1] This continued after the first season was made available and fanzines quickly began to be organised. Further crafts have been encouraged by She-Ra's official "Makers Guild" on Tumblr which highlights fanworks within the community, as well as hosting tutorials for making props other She-Ra related crafts.[2]

Shipping

Femslash dominates the fandom with Adora/Catra being the juggernaut pairing. Gen works are also fairly popular, but het is much less common and initially consisted mostly of fanworks focusing on Mermista/Sea Hawk. After the third season Entrapta/Hordak seem to be the biggest het ship. The other main femslash pairings include Adora/Glimmer and Catra/Scorpia.

Many ships became canon in the final season of She-Ra, including: Adora/Catra, Mermista/Sea Hawk, Bow/Glimmer, and possibly implied Entrapta/Hordak. Scorpia also hinted that Kyle had a crush on Rogelio, further encouraging that particular ship, though nothing more happened with the pair in the final season.

Common Pairings

Other Pairings

Common OT3s

Challenges and Activities

Discussion & Controversies

Character Designs

Fan reaction to She-Ra's character designs was largely positive, although a minority were unhappy. Some did not like the differences between the new design and the original, with further detractors claiming that Adora looked too masculine. Others responded that the new series tried to avoid sexualizing a children's show, and conveyed body positivity. Fan artists responded to She-Ra's redesign and the controversy over it with a wave of artworks celebrating the heroine's new look.[1]

Clashes with Voltron Fandom

She-Ra's newly developing fandom had some early clashes with the Voltron fandom. This was mostly was about not wanting She-Ra to be associated with Voltron's fandom, which had gained a negative reputation over the years thanks to shipping wars and general wank. Voltron had also recently faced backslash for its handling of LGBT characters in its 7th season. She-Ra on the other hand was receiving much praise for its handling of representation, leading some fans to use this to further poke fun of Voltron.[3] Another issue was with comparisons between Voltron's Klance ship and She-Ra's Catradora. Klance remained noncanon upon the series finale while Catradora appeared, to many, as being written in canon with clear intentions of being interpreted romantically. In She-Ra's 5th and final season Catradora became canon and the two shared a kiss, further accentuating the divide between the Voltron fandom and the She-ra fandom. The Dragon Prince was often allied with She-Ra in various posts against Voltron.[4]

Criticisms of Catradora

Because of Catra repeatedly attacking Adora and the Rebellion, some fans consider Catradora and Catradora shippers to romanticise abuse. To counter this, Catradora shippers have pointed out that the series does not complete Catra's character arc and she does still have reparations to make and a lot to learn about managing her emotions when the show ends, but she is in the process of bettering herself. Another criticism of the ship, although less widespread, is that Catradora can be considered incestuous. This is because Catra and Adora were raised together at the Horde. Most fans do not accept this criticism because Catra and Adora were never shown to view themselves as sisters.

Character Age

The ages of the characters were ambiguous from the start, with the She-Ra crew only giving rough estimates for the main casts' ages, with most being older teens.[5][6] The discourse surrounding character age really only became a problem when fans began shipping Entrapta and Hordak, particularly around Season 3 and 4. Due to the ambiguous nature of the casts' ages this lead many fans to understandably assume Entrapta was just as young as the other Princesses in the rebellion. Considering Hordak is not only an adult, but an adult who may have been alive for hundreds of years, this ship became problematic. However, Rae Geiger, one of the story boarders, confirmed that Entrapta was indeed an adult roughly in her mid twenties to thirties, and joked that "she would NEVER do her taxes."[7] Despite this some She-Ra fans still find the ship to be sus.[8]

Fans who made arguments about Entrapta's age, specifically about how even though she was an adult she "acted like a kid," created their own discourse. Because Entrapta is meant to represent someone autistic fans began to defend her, stated that calling her a child when the crew already stated she was an adult was infantilizing her for her autism.[9][10]

The Panel

The show runners and their staff spoke in a number of panels for a show called "She-Ra: Progressive of Power." As of Aug 27, 2020, there are four episodes, each from Aug 2020, with the most contentious episode airing on Aug 26th. This episode has caused controversy throughout the fandom for statements made by the show runners, enough so that the main She Ra tag on Tumblr (as of Aug 27, 2020) is mainly discussion of this panel. The main issues are that the staff, including the show runner ND Stevenson, made comments that were considered racist, ableist, and possibly homophobic (or lesbiophobic) by the fandom. Some members of the fandom are in disagreement that what was stated was as big a deal as others were making it, while others say some of the statements as being problematic and others less so (i.e. saying some of the proposed issues aren't actually issues, such as the accusations of ableism, and are instead taking attention away from the actual issues, such as the comments about slaves/slavery). See Race and Fandom and Ableism in Fandom. Some comments are below.

surprise! perfect representation for everyone can’t come from a show where a majority of the crew members are white and able-bodied! stop putting creators on a pedestal and refusing to criticize them or their work, and please stop silencing the voices of poc, people with disabilities, and any other group unhappy with the flaws in the show that are trying to bring light to these issues.

hqku, 8/27/2020 (Archived 8/27/2020)

as a black person and a fan of the show, the responses to the she-ra stream are quite frankly embarrassing. [snipped] the fact is that the she-ra team is almost entirely white and if you didn’t see it coming that they would eventually say something off-color you’re delusional. the comment about bow’s brother was the kind of tasteless that actual black people would just roll their eyes at, but white fans are turning this into something about how you can never trust anyone even people you thought were #woke. as poc we are aware that you CANNOT expect a white person to never reveal their internalized racism because it is just that, internalized, and the zealots in the tag trying to cancel the crew are only demonstrating fragility. you don’t have to get over it, but you shouldn’t be putting them on a pedestal in the first place, especially over actual creators of color portraying poc’s lived experiences accurately.

Feministhotline, 8/27/2020 (Archived 8/27/2020)

1. “_____ called someone the D slur”

He DID NOT call anyone that word. He used it in the context of announcing a panelist to the show. The word is IN THE TITLE of her podcast. He was literally just stating the title. That’s it.

[snipped]

3. “ND Stevenson said Entrapta and Hordak are great representation.”

Literally just did not say this. This comment was made by a fan writing in. A fan who, by the way, IS DISABLED THEMSELVES, and was writing in to thank the crew for the rep THEY saw in these characters. ND Stevenson didn’t agree or disagree at all. He goes on to give a character analysis about them both, and that’s it.

[snipped]

Recappers-Delight, snipped to show comments specifically about the ableism and slur, 8/27/2020 (Archived 8/27/2020)

Fanworks

Fanart

Fanfiction

Fan Games

Zines

Original Songs/Filk

Memes

Archives & Fannish Links

Dreamwidth

Tumblr

Tumblr tags: She-Ra, SPOP and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

References

  1. ^ a b Fan artists discuss why the wave of She-Ra fan art is subversive and uplifting
  2. ^ official She-Ra Tumblr: The Makers Guild
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ She-Ra’s showrunner on villains, heroes, and the show’s controversial design, The Verge. Nov 15, 2018 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
  6. ^ Guess on Character Ages, Reddit. Jan 11, 2019 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
  7. ^ Umm are you sure that is this Entrapa's age, Tumblr. May 1, 2019 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
  8. ^ Can’t stop thinking about how that one tweet was like “entrapta is 26”, Tumblr. Aug 6, 2019 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
  9. ^ Valid: Not liking Entraptadak as a ship, Tumblr. Sept 2, 2019 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
  10. ^ If people would stop infantilizing Entrapta thatd be fucking great, Tumblr. Aug 3, 2019 (Accessed 5/18/2020)
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