I love she ra because it’s just a deeply gay story in every way, if that makes sense? Partially because it’s established as such a completely normal and prevalent thing in their world that it’s never really discussed, nobody’s ever like “OMG you like girls?!!? You have two dad’s?! What???”. It just exists. And it’s not just a couple of token main characters, it’s just casually throw in in the background too, down to little details like Scorpia having a photo of herself with what looks like two moms on her nightstand.
But like, thematically it’s also just fundamentally super fucking gay in a way I’m still trying to articulate.
Part of it is in the religious oppression narrative. And it’s in the found family vibe. It’s in Catra trying to assure Shadow Weaver that it’s “just a phase” when Adora first defects from the horde. It’s in the princesses forming a literal rainbow when they work together at the end of season one. It’s Bow “coming out” as a rebel fighter to his two dads.
It’s in Adora’s narrative of being told her whole life to deny her own needs and desires, like that part in season five when Shadow Weaver is trying to convince her that Catra is a distraction? And that Catra will always be a dangerous and corrupting influence on her? But then her vision of Mara tells her that she deserves to have love.
It’s in Adora initially being mislead to believe Mara was a monster when she was actually a freedom fighter who refused to submit to her predestined path.
And it’s in Catra’s angry repressed… everything. On a subtextual level everything about Catra’s narrative reads like an angry abused gay teenager whose disconnect with her own feelings has turned both self destructive and outwardly destructive. And then in season 5 when she’s brainwashed/converted by horde prime and tells Adora she’s finally at peace and free from feeling anything about her. Like. THE SUBTEXT.
And then also the way Adora/Catra are paralleled to Spinerella/Netossa in season 5. And Spinerella’s line, when she’s first revealed to be possessed, that’s something like “it’s a pity we can’t be together in the light of horde prime”. Which like, obviously refers to the fact that no individual relationships of any kind get to exist, period, under his rule because nobody gets to be an individual. But, again, the subtext. The layer of meaning there that wouldn’t exist if they were a straight couple.
But then the thing that saves the ENTIRE UNIVERSE is Adora and Catra finally accepting their love for each other (and turning into a LITERAL RAINBOW when they kiss).
And just the whole emphasis on supposed imperfections and impurities being people’s greatest strengths. It’s just.
It’s not just a story that happens to include queer characters, it’s a Queer Story™.
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