She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix is a modern reimagining of the classic ’80s Filmation series. She-Ra is a part of the He-Man universe and so holds a place in many fans’ hearts, and as expected this led to many debates about the redesign of the characters. Some arguments seemed to be reasonable, like some complaining about the more cartoony super deformed art style, or the redesign of She-Ra herself, but some seemed purposely argumentative and toxic like why was there a wider LGBTQ and minority ethnic representation on the show and why She-Ra herself was less 'feminine'.
I personally thought that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 1 was an excellent 13 part animated series with a lot of heart. I knew that it would not please all fans of the 80s show but as a father 2 young daughters I liked the strong female lead, the characterisation of the entire cast and the well told Heroes Journey tale.
Well, this second series continues from where the last series ended with She-Ra still being trained by Lighthope and making slow progress. The Princess Alliance is holding strong against the continuous daily onslaught of Horde robots.
The story works from there as the Princesses start getting used to being friends as well as allies. Meanwhile, Catra is making good progress as Horde Captain by taking over many of the kingdoms but becomes increasingly disillusioned by the paperwork, red tape and slow bureaucratic busywork of it all. Hordak, meanwhile, is busy with his portal machine, looking for an intergalactic endgame. So, from this briefest of overviews you can see that there's a lot going on.
At only 7 episodes this series is light on storyline but it really focuses on the characters and the world of Etherea. Along the way it tackles some heavy topics like toxic friendships, ageism and bureaucracy through the lens of animation. The episode focusing on Shadow Weaver is excellent and offers us a look into her past, showing her descent from the light side. The MVP of this series however is Scorpia, the wannabe bestie/ lover of Catra. We see her try to get Catra to open up to the possibility of friendship and maybe more but to little success. Don't get disheartened though, it's not all edge lord stuff, there's plenty of fun and the D&D episode, 'Roll With It' shows that the writers are on a winning streak with this series.
I'm glad that this series exists, one with strong characters that aren't afraid to work together to challenge the status quo.
