She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

I loved Hordak and Entrapta's relationship.

Hordak is stuck in the space-boonies with with a bunch of clueless primitives who have no idea what he's on about half the time. He's desperate for someone he can talk to as an equal, and he's even more desperate for someone who can get him back in touch with galactic civilisation, and keeps being disappointed when his chosen lieutenants can't meet his standards.

@Will Keaton Keep in mind that main reason he liked Catra was that she got him Entrapta. No wonder he quickly started favoring our Tinker Belle over her.

ROLL WITH IT

It was everything I wanted to be and more. Like everyone was great. Mermista especially grew on me, with her Sea-Ra scene being just best. "Then it's like, sparkle, sparkle, dolphin, sparkle.I get shoes that are slightly better than my normal shoes. There's probably another dolphin."

My theory so far proves true, with this episode giving extra focus on Scorpia! And to lesser extent the cadets, but who cares, Scorpia! Now you're just spoiling me. Her crush on Catra - somehow - gets less subtle and more adorable with each episode. And she got chance to be badass too! I'm also with her, that spybot was adorable.

It was clever idea how to put fantasy game into fantasy setting, fun seeing Perfuma being That Player, and Adora being pretty much every DM ever.

I know it's a coincidence, but it was nice seeing Bow with Sea Hawk-like mustache. On the other hand, Frosta remembering Catra as "likes to ruin parties", was deliberate and a very nice touch.

Although, I wish we could see Hordak in his old-school outfit.

Poor Kyle, though. At this point it's pretty clear that Ship Tease he had in background with Rogelio is not really part of the script, isn't it?

Wasn't the only person, who was close enough to be equal to Hordak in nearly all continuities, was Skeletor?

It's a shame Skeletor will likely never appear in the show. He'd be a pretty good foil to Hordak, hammy and bombastic to his calm and sinister.

I wouldn't call Hordy calm...

Being Kyle is suffering and he really doesn't deserve any of what his teammates do to him. Also wait, this is the first time Rogelio's name has actually been mentioned in the entire series, isn't it?

Yup. Before it was only stated trough Word of God. That's why Scorpia didn't knew it.

Is it me or does Rogelio sound Italian?

I'm honestly kinda confused by Kyle and his pitifulness. I mean, even Bow's moment of interaction with him was played for laughs, I don't really see what is funny about "Oh look at how insecure and lonely this guy is because nobody likes him" .-.

x9 Something funny with that... It could lead to Hordak not being a conqueror hellbent on dominating the planet, but just a guy stranded on an alien (for him) planet, trying desperately to phone home, but nothing ever works so he's become moody and cynical, and every little thing that bothers him feels like it's a thousand times worse.

I mean, it probably won't, but imagine if it did.

Edited by Resileafs on Apr 29th 2019 at 9:32:51 AM

Well some people were theorizing that Kyle would really be He-Man in this continuity, but as we’ve established, that’s not happening by the power of Mattel Legal.

BY THE POWER OF LAWYERS...

I HAVE A CEASE AND DESIST!!!!

Pretty sure Bow having a mustache was a callback to the original She-Ra.

There's a character on We Bare Bears called Ranger Tabes, and I swear it's like she and Scorpia are twins. They have a very similar voice and they have an almost identical personality. They're both super enthusiastic about their work, they're both super friendly and they're both kind of thick, but in the exact same way. Although Tabes doesn't have a crush on anyone. Actually, would you call that a crush? Does Scorpia just want to be Catra's best friend, or is she physically attracted to her?

I certainly think it's a crush.

Definitely a crush. Eagerly awaiting the heated love triangle between Adora, Catra and Scorpia.

Whelp, finished episode 7 thinking "I have to find out what happens next!" only to see that was the last episode. Forgot they're doing the Voltron thing where they split seasons in two and call them individual seasons.

I don,t think they're calling it individual seasons? I think they just decided to split them to prevent binge watching.

It keeps the show consistent without burning through the entire contracted supply. Voltron did something similar, but when Dreamworks washed their hands of it they released the final 26 episodes in the span of roughly four months, more than double their original rate.

She-Ra’s got 52 contracted episodes and barring a toyline announcement at San Diego Comic Con, it’s pretty clear that there aren’t going to be any more. So sending the episodes out immediately and burning your supply out in a year and a half feels counterproductive.

Edited by Beatman1 on Apr 29th 2019 at 1:22:29 PM

I mean, Netflix labels the new set of episodes as "Season 2", not "Season 2 Part 1". I'm assuming they're calling the next set of episodes "Season 3".

I'm not that fussed about it. It's nice to have a fairly consistent schedule of new episodes.

The release schedule itself doesn't bother me, but the labeling does. Labeling these releases as "season 2, part 1" at least indicates that there's more to the season and that there are less pacing and plot flow issues than there really are. They actually used to do that with All Hail King Julien and Puss in Boots, so I don't know why they stopped suddenly.

Scorpia's absolutely got a crush, but I think her insistence she wants to be Catra's friend is a bit more than just the show playing Hide Your Lesbians (they're pretty clear that Bow's dads are a Happily Married couple, for instance). Either she's just that naive (plausible), or she's actively refusing to admit the obvious (also plausible).

Well, she did start the relationship by saying "I'm a hugger", so it's a fair possibility that she sees friendship like that.

Plus, y'know, kitty.

Edited by Resileafs on Apr 29th 2019 at 2:25:50 PM

So you think that Scorpia is Adrien "She's just a friend" Agreste or Marge Simpson.

Signals

Hey, look, Hordak has a novelty plasma ball. Apparently it is something really important. I know live action shows make much of mundane props, but I haven't seen it that often in a cartoon.

The plasma ball breaks, and the monkey boy (not sure what his name is)... um... does something with it, I think. These cold opens are so short and nondescript, I'm not sure why they even bother with them. Production habit, I guess.

The intrepid trio discusses Entrapta's sort of defection, with the implication that is is merely the presence of better technology that keeps her there. At least that means the heroes are somewhat on the same page on Entrapta as the audience now.

"Magic and tech aren't totally separate things. Entrapta is one of the only people who really understands that. She got closer to combining them than anyone else." So basically, Entrapta is inventing magitech in a world where magic and technology used to be fairly separate things. Interesting development.

"Who needs Entrapta? You've got Bow, tech master and premiere member of the Etherian maker community." Nice shoutout to maker culture, there.

The trio decide nothing can be done about Entrapta for now, and prepare for a contact mission with a farm community, hoping the Horde will not show up.

"They're definitely involved, they always are." Considering that nothing else but the Horde conquering things and the Rebellion fighting them seems to happen in Etheria, that should indeed not be surprising. It is sort of an all-consuming conflict.

Also, note that Glimmer is now apparently a de facto leader of the group, and no longer needs permission for every mission. Actual character development!

And then there are... ominously wind-blown trees. I'm not sure if this is meant to foreshadow something, or just setting the mood.

Emily, Entrapta's robot, has apparently been repaired. Or was it not destroyed in the first place? It's been a while.

Meanwhile, Catra is trying to talk to Hordak about battle plans, but Hordak is apparently more interested in holding Catra's failures over her head. He also removes (part of) the air from the room they are in with a machine (apparently it interferes with his experiments), making Catra choke. Hordak is not impressed, and can apparently do without air. Or something to that effect.

Of course, he thinks it is pathetic of humans to need something silly like air. It does turn him into more of a cartoon villain, though, which is not the most interesting direction to take, but oh well.

Hordak sends Catra on her way to defeat the rebellion, with the understanding that failure will mean death (not that he killed Shadow Weaver, but still). Also, Monkey Boy can immitate Hordak's voice, apparently.

Alwyn (no idea if I'm spelling that right) is a giant apple orchard, and right now it is very creepy. Of course, Swift Wind eats one of the apples right after announcing that something is weird about the place.

"What? Creepy apples taste just as good as normal apples." No genre savviness here, I see.

Bow's tracker suddenly stops working, which in Harry Potter logic probably means some strong magic is nearby. Also, does that thing have screens on both sides? It kinda looks like it is flipping directions from shot to shot.

"Even if people used to tell stories about Alwyn being haunted." Given how creepy this place is, I'm surprosed people are even willing to live here at all.

"It's just stories, and even if it wasn't, we'd handle them." And the topic for today's episode is: Glimmer's sudden overconfidence. No doubt by the end of this, she will have learned a Valuable Lesson about not being overconfident.

And of course we see a ghost right after they leave to search for a voice Swift Wind thought he heard. I feel like I've seen this plot a hundred times before.

Meanwhile, Catra is planning an attack, and trying to deal with the minutiae of running the Horde, which apparently now all falls on HER shoulders, for some reason. Hasn't the Horde heard of delegation, military hierarchy, anything? At least Scorpia seems on top of things. She's amazingly handy with those big meaty claws, too.

"How am I supposed to defeat the rebellion when all I do is this stupid busywork." Yeah, what she said! At this point, it's like the whole Horde is run by just two people, Hordak and Catra.

Man, Shadow Weaver must have been amazing at this job. Hordak doesn't know what he threw away with her. Or what he has with Catra for that matter. Catra's right, the Horde came THIS close to winning, more than ever before, but all he seems to see is the latest minor setback. You're not going to win a war by offing the command for every lost battle. So much for being a "pragmatic" villain.

"I bet Shadow Weaver didn't have to deal with any of this." "Uh, these are her files, so she probably did." Yeah, what she said! Again. This episode sure is anticipating all my points today.

Entrapta drops in via a vent, and Catra informs her that she is not a prisoner and does not have to sneak around. Entrapta retors that the vents are actually faster.

Catra implores Entrapta to NOT raid Hordak's sanctum for tools, so of course that is exactly what she will end up doing. I guess Entrapta is going to learn about overconfidence, too? This season has a thing about mirroring plots so far.

So, we are halfway through the episode, and this seems to be all the plot we will be having today. It is a little... filler-y. Like the last one, to be honest. It's not bad on it's own, but it doesn't move the bigger plot forward. And we don't even know yet what that bigger plot IS.

Meanwhile, the intrepid trio (or is that quatro, now?) investigate some spooky abandoned house, and Adora tells another ghost story.

Some of the scares here are a little forced, like when Bow yells at the rest from right behind them. But there sure are a lot of jump scares. Why are they out here in the middle of the night, anyway?

Adora ONLY JUST NOW realizes that ALL the Horde ghost stories involve scary princesses.

Meanwhile, you guessed it, Entrapta snuck into Hordak's lab.

"Well, that's no reason to get huffy because an experiment failed, failure is a vital part of all scientific endeavour." Catra does war better than Hordak, and Entrapta does science better than him, too. I sense a pattern here.

And of course she is going to fix up Hordak's experiment, just for the sake of science. This is probably going to end up with Hordak promoting her, is it?

Meanwhile, the quatro finally sees and hears the ghostly apparition, and Adora is the first to go into attack mode.

Meanwhile (these scenes sure switch back and forth a lot), Hordak discovers Entrapta, tells her to get out, but is rather confused to find that she has NO reaction to his presence whatsoever.

"There will be dire consequences for this flagrant breach of conduct." Hordak trying to save face is amazing. He is SO not used to people NOT cowering in his presence.

"You used uninsulated cables, I replaced them for you." ... What kind of idiot scientist is Hordak to use uninsulated cables in an experiment involving loads of electrical charges? This right here is why Hordak is not winning the war.

Also, Hordak's look is priceless.

"She was right." So much confusion at realizing he was wrong.

Entrapta figures out what Hordak is up to within a minute, and STILL the guy tries to be scornful.

"Obviously someone from a backwater planet such as yours couldn't posssibly comprehend it." I mean, she just TOLD you what you were doing. He is trying SO hard to save face.

Hordak reveals that there are many other worlds, and that the portal will allow him to travel there. The implication being that he is from another world alltogether. Entrapta is fascinated, as Etherea seems to be fully isolated from other worlds, and not even aware that other worlds might exist. No wonder he calls it a backwater planet.

Meanwhile, Catra demands to know from Shadow Weaver where she can find metal for armor, and is told that it would be in the foundry. That seems... rather obvious. How did Catra or Scorpia NOT figure that out?

"Being me isn't quite what you imagined, is it?" I have the feeling it isn't quite what SHE imagined, either. How is she supposed to lead the war AND deal with all the minutiae?

Also, Shadow Weaver seems to spend her days slumped over on the floor of her cell for some reason. It sure looks dramatic, but you'd think she would get up from time to time, or something.

Meanwhile, in the haunted forest, the quatro is hunted by blue flame ghost people. Or something.

Bow realizes that this place is a First Ones ruin, and the ghosts are glitchy holograms.

Meanwhile, in the Fright Zone: "I found the file, and guess what?" "The material is produced right here in the Fright Zone?" "Beautiful AND brilliant..." Well, that's your first ship tease for this season, I guess.

Also, the Horde clearly does not do briefcases or bags or anything. Poor Scorpia has been lugging loose files around all day.

Entrapta manages to get Hordak's experiment to work, but needs more First Ones tech to really make the portal work.

"YOU are the one bothering me, force captain, with your unwelcome intrusion. I. AM. WORKING. With Entrapta's assistance." He makes it sound like it was HIS idea all along, and how DARE you assume it wasn't.

Meanwhile, Adora realizes that the First Ones were just regular people, despite their advanced tech, and that the holograms are basically futuristic text messages.

The farmers, who fled from the glitched holograms, can return now the hub is turned off, and... that's it for this plot point. That really went nowhere at all.

Well, one more thing: Bow sees some First Ones message that even Adora can't decipher, thinking it is degraded writing. A final shot of some deserted First Ones facility monitor suggests that these are constellations of stars, however. Stars that I assume are not there in the Etherian sky.

And that's it for this episode. There is a bit of exposition on the wider plot (which is perhaps creating that portal?), but otherwise, nothing much happened.