She-Ra, Arcane, Toys

Just taking some notes on a few more shows that I watched on Netflix.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

A friend made me watch the first three seasons of this show a few years ago when I was visiting her. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but of course I then went back home, which meant no more Netflix. It made sense to now rewatch what I'd seen before and then find out how the story wrapped up.

I'd say the animation is only mid-tier, but the music is great and it's a lovely story overall - primarily aimed at a young audience for sure with how cheerful and full of rainbows it is, but still not without depth either. For example it probably has the biggest raising of stakes I've ever seen in a kid's show, going from "just fighting some bad guys here in this fantasy land" to dealing with a galactic emperor looking to wipe out whole civilizations in the space of only a few episodes.

Catra's characterisation in particular was surprisingly deep, showing how we're all to some degree products of our environment, how someone who's brave and clever can do some pretty monstrous things when constantly pushed in a bad way, and yet how there can also be recovery once things change.

Arcane

Grim and dark, Arcane was the opposite of She-Ra in many ways, but no less enjoyable, with beautiful animation that's a feast for the eyes and clever writing that makes you understand each character's motivations even when they do terrible things.

I looked up afterwards how all of this connected to League of Legends (the IP it's based on), and the answer is actually "quite tenuously". One comment that stuck with me said something along the lines of: "I can't believe they took a character that basically started as a Harley Quinn knock-off and came up with this story."

The Toys That Made Us

Some non-fiction for a change. I think the first time I became aware of this show was when I saw a clip from the He-Man episode make the rounds on Twitter, though I think I saw it mentioned in other contexts as well.

Really funny and interesting series about toys and cartoons from my childhood, with just the right dash of nostalgia mixed with a lot of insight into what goes on behind the scenes in that industry. My personal favourite was the My Little Pony episode since those were the centre of my childhood, but even the episodes about toys I barely knew anything about were interesting.

Plus, the theme tune is a banger, and I was singing it to myself for days.