sonofabaggins replied to your post “Everytime I watch the first couple of She-Ra seasons I find myself...”
what do you mean lol
How was I lied to, you ask?
1. Hordak. Goddamned Crew-Ra lulled me into a false sense of security. They presented me with a one-dimensional, admittedly competent but otherwise uninteresting Big Bad and maintained him as such for a full season. I committed to this show with the understanding that I would bond to Catra, who was a safe definitely-will-survive-the-show character that would bring me pleasant emotional catharsis.
Then season three happened, and I was blindsided with all of that Hordak development, and now I’m emotionally bonded to my precious trashbat son who potentially will not survive the goddamned series.
I WAS DUPED.
2. The whole crazy Mara/She-Ra as savior of Etheria thing. I actually really appreciate how they did this: I’m generally a sucker for a “protect the lovely environment from the evil industrialists” story; I enjoy nature, y’know? And they were so good at presenting the situation that way: that the Horde was destroying the natural balance, and that She-Ra had to restore that balance.
Even though many, myself included, guessed that Etheria was a weapon of some sort, it still caught me by surprise that Adora’s entire hero’s journey was actually a manipulative lie. She sacrificed so much, suffered so much, trying to become what she thought would save her friends and the world... only to find out that what she had been working towards would kill everyone and everything.
It was a great deconstruction of the “chosen hero” trope. And it’s sort of haunting to watch early Adora put forth all of this effort to fulfill her destiny, when her destiny is basically being a gun trigger.
