She-Ra Versus Christian Fundamentalism
alright y’all it’s time to post what I’ve been thinking about constantly since I watched She-Ra season 5. it’s a bit rough around the edges, but I still think y’all will enjoy this big ole fan-post-thing.
Content warning: Discussion of cults, religious trauma, indoctrination, homophobia, and “conversion therapy”
Religious trauma, as many other commenters have noticed, is a major overarching theme in She-Ra Season 5. From Horde Prime’s language of “making his children in his image” to the way his clones worship him, the parallels are not exactly subtle.
Connections between Horde Prime as an antagonist and fundamentalist Christian churches are not just left to fan speculation. Noelle Stevenson confirmed them in several interviews. For example, “Stevenson says her crew specifically looked at how megachurches are laid out when they were designing Horde Prime’s spaceship.” Noelle has also said that she was raised in a fundamentalist household (iirc, I’ll have to double check that), which likely influenced how she wrote She-Ra.
She said that Horde Prime was inspired by real-life cult leaders, which might show that She-Ra’s implicit criticisms are focused at a specific subset of extra-dogmatic religious organizations. Still, keep in mind that anthropologists tend to discourage using the term “cult” and instead encourage saying “new religious movements” because the differences between “cult” and “religion” are so subjective and culture-dependent.
Compare horde_prime_T_pose.jpg the screenshot above to the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. More explicit parallels are given in the phrasing of dialogue by/about Horde Prime. I counted 27 lines in just a few episodes which use the same phrasing as the Bible. I highlighted some of the most striking parallels:
But what if I told you that critiques of religion generally and fundamentalist Christianity specifically have been underlying She-Ra’s story from the very beginning?
(1) “I Can’t Go Back. This is Wrong.” Self-Questioning and De-Conversion
The very first episode of She-Ra shows Adora learning that she is on the wrong side of an ideological conflict, and that the ideology she was raised with is a lie. Everyone raised religious who de-converted started with that kind of experience.
Christianity in particular teaches children about the crucial moral importance of belief in its doctrines, such that doubt is an enemy to wrestle with. Speaking as an ex-Christian, even considering the possibility of ceasing to believe feels wrong. Adora’s existential crisis and emotional turmoil confronting her old beliefs matches the same turmoil faced by many ex-Christians who have lost their faith.
She-Ra did not have to emphasize the heroic struggle of how Adora cast aside her false beliefs. Plenty of other stories don’t. Revenge of the Sith provides an excellent contrast, with a message much more conducive to religion. The central conflict in Revenge of the Sith was Anakin questioning the worldview and authorities that he had followed for his whole life. His questioning was portrayed as submitting to an evil temptation — the first step of a tragic fall from grace, not the first step of a heroic self-realization like Adora’s.
Another fantastic example of this is “Wrong Hordak,” who has an “existential crisis” after realizing that his dogmatic beliefs about Horde Prime were wrong. I could probably write a whole separate post about the parallels in his character arc, but in this one I just want to briefly explore each connection between She-Ra and Christian fundamentalism.
(2) “So that He Can See that I Am Worthy!” Submission and Worth
Hordak and Catra, the main villains for most of the series, did evil things not because they are inherently sinful or because they submitted to the devil’s temptation. Both of them craved validation, a feeling that they had worth. Both of them had been taught since birth that they are worthless creatures who could only gain worth by serving their masters. Both of them recover and become better people by realizing that they do not need to prove their worth to anyone. Instead, they both return to loving relationships with other people, authority be damned.
Christianity teaches in its doctrine of “original sin” that all humans have a fallen nature. In other words, all humans are corrupted from birth. Calvinist theology, which is very common in American Christian fundamentalism, takes this to the logical extreme by calling everyone totally depraved — completely evil without God. Humans only have worth because they are made in God’s image, and can only prove their worth by following Jesus Christ. She-Ra rejects the idea that submission to a higher, divine authority grants moral worth, pointing out that this belief psychologically damages people who are made to feel worthless and emotionally dependent on validation by authority figures.
Shadow Weaver’s backstory is much more conducive to religion because it shows someone becoming corrupted by her desire for power and then fall into darkness. The main difference between her story and Anakin’s, other than their relationship to emotions, is simply that Shadow Weaver was not one of the protagonists. Shadow Weaver’s inclusion as a villain who thinks she has been redeemed adds nuance by, among other things, showing that opposing the “bad guys” is not enough to justify one’s actions.
As other fans have noticed, Hordak’s origin story parallels that of the archangel Lucifer in the Christian mythos: “Lucifer, an archangel at the time, rebelled against God and got cast out into hell; Hordak, the top general, ‘rebelled’ against Prime and got cast out too.” Although the fan who pointed this out tried to distinguish the two by pointing out that “Hordak’s 'rebellion’ was just him developing free will,” another fan called this a distinction without a difference: “A bunch of interpretations associate this [developing free will as rebellion] with Lucifer too, so I totally believe this being the parrallel [sic] they’re going for.”
When Hordak yells “I defy your will!” to Horde Prime and throws him off a cliff, he defied his creator. Viewed through the lens of the Lucifer analogy, Hordak basically asserted his personal worth by dethroning God.
The first analogous stories that come to mind for me, where a godlike creator is overthrown by its creations asserting their individuality, are the final battles of His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. Both are explicitly anti-religion, and specifically anti-Christianity.
(3) “You Do Not Choose. You Were Chosen.” Divine Destiny vs. Human Choice
Light Hope wants Adora to fulfill her pre-ordained purpose/role in a grand narrative. Adora clashes with Light Hope often because Adora wants to make her own choices instead, based on her relationships with the people she loves. This clash mirrors many philosophical disagreements, including that between religious teleology and secular humanism. Teleology, a concept emphasized in Aristotle’s philosophy and in (probably) most Christian theology, says that each person exists for a pre-ordained purpose/role. Humanism, on the other hand, tells us to choose our own purpose/role instead.
She-Ra Season 1 has a message more friendly to religion than the arc of the entire show. Light Hope partly explains that friendliness, because she is a mentor from ages past who teaches Adora to follow her destiny and do what is right. As Adora cooperates with Light Hope and follows her destiny as She-Ra, their relationship is almost like the relationship between the God of the Old Testament and his prophets: Adora has to reject her society’s prescribed role to fulfill a higher calling. But Adora soon realizes that this “higher calling” violates her own moral conscience based on her relationships with the people she loves.
She-Ra’s rejection of destiny is somewhat unusual among stories that children hear. Contrast the protagonists of Star Wars (again), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, MLP: FiM, Warrior Cats, the Chronicles of Narnia, and many other stories with messages friendly to religion. Those protagonists do what is right by obediently following the path laid down by destiny, whereas Adora does what is right by defying her destiny.
(4) “All Creatures, No Matter How Small, Have a Place in Service of Horde Prime.” Conditional Universal Love
Horde Prime loves everyone, hypothetically. He just wants everyone to serve and worship him. If you don’t, he will give you hell. His love for any given person is conditional on that person’s worship. The god of Christian fundamentalism is much the same way. He loves everyone, hypothetically, but punishes those who do not follow him by giving them eternal suffering after death.
I admit that this is the weakest parallel. Horde Prime says in his eponymous episode that the Etherians’ “strong connections to each other” are “what make [them] weak.” Even in Christian fundamentalism, God is usually portrayed as viewing personal relationships much more favorably as long as they’re not gay. But I still considered it worth including.
(5) “To Bring Peace and Order to the Farthest Reaches of the Universe!” The Great Commission and Imperialism
When Horde Prime apologized for Hordak’s “botched conquests,” Glimmer asked him, “So you’ll leave us alone?” Horde Prime chuckled. His ideology of spreading “peace and order to the farthest reaches of the universe” would not let him limit his reach. The true horror of Horde Prime is realizing that whatever horrific acts he commits will never satisfy him as long as someone, somewhere, has not heard of him.
Jesus of Nazareth’s last recorded message to his followers was “The Great Commission”: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Christian missionaries took this command to heart, with many of them making it their life goal to spread Jesus’s teachings throughout the world. If someone, somewhere, has not heard of Jesus, then Christian missionaries feel obligated to come and share the good news.
Unfortunately, the unholy merging of Christian evangelism with imperial conquest in 16th to 20th century Europe mirrors this horror. Europeans combined this with expanding their empires by establishing colonies to rule over native peoples. Regardless of whether an ideal Christian theology would approve of imperialist atrocities, Christianity as cultural movement has been used to supplant native cultures for centuries. Many atrocities throughout history, including the Crusades and the genocide of the Native Americans, were at least partly inspired by the desire to spread Christianity.
(6) “Cast Out the Shadows!” Light is Not (Always) Good
Animated family cartoons typically distinguish the “good guys” from the “bad guys” by using color styles. The “good guys” have a bright, rainbow color palette, while the palette for the “bad guys” is dark and grim. Season 1 of She-Ra plays this completely straight unlike its ships lol. The Fright Zone’s colors range from fire-red to poison-green, mixed with muted blacks and grays. Bright Moon is colorful and vibrant, showing a pleasant pastel aesthetic.
Reinforcing this trope, the Horde’s symbols and characters tend to have the parts of animals considered demonic in Western common superstition (cats, bats, etc). The Rebellion’s symbols and characters are more closely linked to angels – especially its former leader, Queen Angella.
The pure, sterile-white aesthetic of Horde Prime in Season 5 completely flips these tropes on their heads. All of a sudden, the “demonic” Hordak and Catra are the “good guys,” while the “angelic” Horde Prime and his army are the “bad guys.” The protagonists are no longer fighting enemies who look demonic. They are fighting enemies who look angelic.
Horde Prime’s aesthetic takes inspiration from Christianity in several other ways. The main chamber of his ship is inspired by megachurches and cathedrals, complete with a computer screen that looks like a stained-glass window. Horde Prime’s main theme music begins with deep, resonant church organs, which remain in his capitol ship’s background music and rise to a swell during Adora’s battle with mind-controlled Catra. On an implicit level, these cues all tell the mind to associate Horde Prime with Christian cults.
(7) “All Beings Must Suffer to Become Pure!” Catra’s Baptism and Purification
One of the most direct parallels between Christian fundamentalism and Horde Prime’s cult is how it tries to “purify” its members through baptism. Prime’s “baptism” is much more sinister than your garden-variety church’s, but Prime’s “baptism” simply combines two basic Christian principles: that baptism is needed for salvation, and that people are purified through suffering.
Catra was forced into her “baptism” by the organization that raised her. She then suffered and tried to suppress her feelings for Adora, making the scene analogous to another kind of religious “purification” that has earned widespread condemnation: “conversion therapy,” an abusive process used by religious groups trying to “cure” homosexuality, bisexuality, gender dysphoria, and other non-heteronormative identities by forcing LGBT+ people to repress their identities. Conversion therapy is analogous to Horde Prime’s mind control. After her “baptism,” Catra fights Adora while also fighting to take back control of her own mind. Catra’s love for Adora allows her to break free of the mind control and reclaim her own identity.
(8) “You’re Worth More than What You Can Give to Other People. You Deserve Love Too!” The Virtue of Self-Compassion
Christianity is well known for its heavy focus on martyrdom. Its central figures — Jesus, most of his apostles, and many early saints — are praised for choosing to sacrifice themselves for others. Self-sacrifice is a fundamental part of Christian ethics, which commonly calls self-sacrificing love (“agape”) the “highest form of love,” where the vague term “highest” means “best” or “most praiseworthy.”
Martyrdom is often praiseworthy, to be clear, in the cases where choosing to suffer is the compassionate choice. But it usually isn’t. As She-Ra shows, obsessing over one’s duty to sacrifice oneself for others can warp one’s mind and cause lasting emotional damage.
Adora has consistently left herself open to emotional manipulation by assuming that she must sacrifice everything for others. Season 5 provided another explicit example, where Shadow Weaver set up Adora to activate the failsafe. Adora did not even question that she would have to take it until Catra objected. Catra stood up for Adora because Adora would not. And ultimately, Adora only had the strength to save everyone because Catra’s gave her hope for her own future. Sometimes taking one’s own interests into account is not only helpful and morally praiseworthy, but absolutely necessary to save everyone.
Compassion for oneself is a virtue that Christian ethics has consistently failed to acknowledge, or at least failed to emphasize. Instead, Christian ethics frequently denounces any kind of pride. This causes plenty of damage to the psyches of good people who become convinced that self-hatred and self-sacrifice are inherently good — just like Adora. Years of therapy can be required to convince people raised in abusive Christian environments that they deserve happiness and love.
(9) SHE-RA SAYS GAY RIGHTS BABEY
The big pink elephant in the room is almost too obvious to mention, but is still very relevant. Christianity has infamously oppressed LGBT+ people for its entire history, calling non-heterosexual relationships “unnatural” and “an abomination.” This has lasted through the present day: Christians overwhelmingly opposed marriage equality in the United States until after it became law. Fortunately, many Christians today support marriage equality. Some of them even supported it before it was legal, to their great credit. But oppressing LGBT+ people was the norm for the vast majority of Christian history. To be gay was to defy God’s plan for one’s life. Gay relationships were called inherently sinful, and a spiritually fulfilling gay relationship was deemed impossible.
I don’t want to take a position here about whether Christian theology affirms or condemns LGBT+ identities or relationships. I only want to point out the fact that Christianity as a historical social movement has consistently oppressed LGBT+ people, and that American Christian fundamentalism still tries to. For She-Ra to portray gay relationships as not only normal (e.g. Bow’s dads, Spinnerella and Netossa) but potentially as a positive good — a force that in Catra’s and Adora’s case saves the world — radically opposes the message taught by Christian institutions for most of their history.
She-Ra does not say that same-sex relationships are always good or healthy. Indeed, it makes a serious effort to show how they can go wrong in the case of Catra and Scorpia. The relationship is not good because of its partners’ sexes, but because of the people in that relationship and how they relate to each other.
Christianity has been declining in the United States for decades. Explanations vary, but one of the central ones is disgust at the merging of American Christianity with the Republican Party. Young Americans nowadays tend to hear “Christianity” and think “Republican bigotry,” concluding that neither is desirable. Christian fundamentalists’ homophobia has been one of the most persuasive arguments driving young Americans away from Christianity.
In short, She-Ra teaches the following messages which all in their own way oppose the values of Christian fundamentalism:
You should question the worldview that you were raised with. You might find out that you are on the wrong side, and that the most fundamental beliefs that you learned were lies which are hurting people. (Skepticism, not Faith)
You are worthy just for being a person. Your worth does not depend on approval by your creator(s). (Worth in Yourself, not in the Image of God)
If the path designed for you by destiny/society violates your moral conscience, then you should reject that path and choose your own. (Existentialism, not Teleology)
If someone claims to love all of his children as long as they follow/obey him, then he loves them wrongly. He should love all of his children unconditionally. (Unconditional, not Conditional, Love)
Trying to force everyone to accept your beliefs is wrong. Instead, you should learn to tolerate and accept people with different beliefs. (Multiculturalism, not Evangelism)
Suffering to become more “pure” is needless. It is more likely to cause trauma than to improve moral character. (Self-Care, not Asceticism)
If someone created you and/or has authority over you, then it is still right to defy them if they are morally wrong. (Defiance, not Obedience)
Because you have worth just for being a person, you should learn to love, accept, and take care of yourself. Helping others is good, but you should help them in a healthy way without sacrificing your own mental health or identity. (Pride, not Shame)
Same-sex relationships have the same potential as opposite-sex relationships to be toxic or healthy. Neither of them is inherently wrong. (Acceptance, not Homophobia)
