Recap / She Ra And The Princesses Of Power S 4 E 09 Hero

"They say, if you wanna tell a story right, you have to start at the beginning."

Razz confuses the past and the present and has trouble telling Mara and Adora apart. But Adora desperately needs her help.

---

Tropes

• A Day in the Limelight: It's the first episode to center on Madam Razz, and it's told mainly from her point of view.
• Anachronic Order: The episode is told from Madam Razz's point of view and so the episode zigzags between Mara and Adora's time.
• Continuity Nod: Back in "Remember", Madam Razz threw out a line saying Etheria getting sent into Despondos happened yesterday for her. Now we see she's a Non-Linear Character whose present is continually interspersed with the past.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Madam Razz confusing the past and present and inability to distinguish Mara and Adora might be an allegory for dementia.
• Ending Memorial Service: The episode ends with Razz, Adora, Swift Wind and Bow paying respects for the late Mara, and that's what Razz was baking a pie for.
• Evil All Along: The First Ones turn out to have been using Etheria as a superweapon. Light Hope specifically is recontextualized as a villain, who was only training Adora so that she would fulfill She-Ra's true purpose as the superweapon's "trigger".
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: When Light Hope confronts Mara on board her ship, right before she sends Etheria to Despondos, her eyes are ominously glowing to make her visually distinctive from her friendly version.
• Good All Along: Mara was previously described as having "lost control" and assumed by Adora and Swift Wind to have "gone crazy", but the truth turns out to be that she was never crazy and was rebelling against the evil burden placed on her by the First Ones.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Light Hope originally grew beyond her mission as she disobeyed orders from the First Ones in order to protect Madam Razz on Mara's request. However, it's implied that the First Ones noticed and reprogrammed her.
• Have We Met Yet?: When Razz first meets Mara, Mara is confused because Razz knows her. Razz lampshades that this must be their first meeting.
• Mythology Gag: Razz spots Loo-Kee, a character that hid in the background in the original series, and shouts the original Madam Razz's Catchphrase "Razzle Dazzle!" when attacking Light Hope.
• Non-Linear Character: Razz sees Mara and Adora at different points in time, which sometimes repeat — she's met Mara for the first time several times now and is pretty excited to go through it again. She even sees things from her incarnation in the original 1980s series.
• Odd Friendship: Between Razz and Swift Wind. Turns out he's been visiting her regularly and just chanced to come around at the same time as Adore.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Mara pulls this on Light Hope to keep her from reporting Razz.
• Reforged into a Minion: At some point between when Mara landed on Etheria and before she sent it to Despondos Light Hope was taken by the First Ones' and reprogrammed to ensure that she would make Mara finish the Heart of Etheria project. Mara even says flat out that she isn't Light Hope anymore.
• Shout-Out: Mara's Throat Light as she is magically overwhelmed is inspired by a scene from Annihilation (2018).
• Sword Drag: Mara drags the Sword of Protection right before she sends Etheria to Despondos.
• That Man Is Dead: When confronting her on board the ship Mara says that the hologram isn't her Light Hope. Light Hope merely states that she has the same mainframe as the version Mara was friends with; she just cares more about completing the mission now.
• Unholy Holy Sword: Razz reveals that there's been a She-Ra long before the Sword of Protection. While it may make the transformation easier, the First Ones actually created it to control her power for their use.
• Wham Episode: Adora finally restores Mara's message. It explains the First Ones turned Etheria into a superweapon, and Mara launched the planet into Despondos as a desperate means to keep it out of the wrong hands. Light Hope's personality shift was due to a reprogramming, and it's revealed that She-Ra doesn't need the sword to use her powers.

---