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I got to see the newly-released fifth and final season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and...YaY! That is what I can say. It made me a happy cat.

The conclusion of this series is, frankly, all about two of the female characters (I won't spoil which two, but if you're like me then it's the two you've most been thinking of) finally becoming girlfriends (as in they lock lips; it's NOT left subjective) and the whole complex, emotional way that that happens. It turns out to be what saves the day in the end, in fact. It absolutely works and makes all the more sense of the whole show because everything really was leading up to this point. This isn't one of those shows that's interesting for a while, but has no real conclusion per se. The build-up here really does lead to something heartfelt and powerful. It's tough to avoid spoiling things, but it also seems like it's too early since the release of the last season for it to be appropriate of me to get too detailed and specific. You should see it for yourself and have the details be an extremely pleasant surprise!

Anyway, let me just take a minute to recap the key point for our purposes here: this is an American cartoon...not broadcast on Adult Swim...that includes a lesbian couple kissing on the lips. That is something new. This sets the bar. We have not seen that before. In fact, growing up, even more subtle lesbian relationships were carefully screened out of the U.S. versions of cartoons imported from other countries. (For example, in the American version of Sailor Moon that ran on TV back then, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune weren't a couple, but sisters, which required some pretty careful editing and rewriting...and still wasn't convincing, frankly).

The reception? Pretty much unanimously positive so far, as far as I can tell! In fact, throughout the show, fans have picked up on the strong gay vibes and voiced their appreciation. Showrunner Noelle Stevenson has said that those were intentional and that positive fan reaction emboldened her along that narrative trajectory toward being explicit about how...certain characters...feel about each other.

I can be a sap. Lots of stuff makes me cry, especially when it comes to matters of looooooooove because I'm lonely and haven't been very successful that way all in all. I yearn for what I don't have that way. Still, I cried more than I usually do throughout this last season, which was the best of them all. Nothing drove that more though than the relationship I'm cryptically referencing here. It was just an extremely heartfelt and validating process to see and it makes me wish that THIS She-Ra program had been the one available when I was a kid because THIS kind of material in animation is exactly what I needed back then and it wasn't there. But I'm grateful it's finally here now and that lesbian relationships don't have to be censored anymore, even in children's animation because it's really that 8 to 14 year old demographic for whom questions of sexuality are the most important. That can be the most confusing part of life if you're not straight! And this, like well-made animation broadly, is the kind of show that can be thoroughly enjoyed by all age groups, not just kids.

The next generation of kids will grow up in a world with this material already available, where these relationships don't have to be screened out or censored anymore. They're just gonna take it for granted, like there was never another world. I'm glad because that's how it should've been all along!

All that said, I'm sad to see this show end. It's tough to imagine another one like it -- like an action cartoon directed by a lesbian and organized by a bunch of gay people -- coming out for many more years to come. (Seriously, how many other cartoons have you seen where there are no clearly heterosexual characters? I've seen 10 billion metric tons of the opposite, but none of that before save for on this specific show!) I think She-Ra and the Princesses of Power will remain unique in that respect for some time. And that it will go on feeling unique for that very reason.

Last edited by Jaicee - on 17 May 2020