i just have to say this. she-ra was a weak hero.
don't get me wrong, adora was a very compelling protagonist. she was flawed, relatable and had good character growth (until s5, at least). but she-ra, as her superhero form? i feel like she was just lost potential. i mean, sure, she lifted tanks and stuff. but she never did anything truly mind-blowing as she-ra.
in her fights with catra, i guess you could say catra had the upper hand because she was adora's abuser. but in general, there were very few satisfying fight scenes involving she-ra. most of the “fight scenes” were just catra repeatedly and remorselessly torturing adora, all while berating her.
i mean, come on, i get that adora didn't want to hurt catra. but she couldn't even dodge or block catra's attacks? she couldn't figure out a way to restrain catra without hurting her? even a simple punch from catra seemed to really hurt she-ra, so what was the point of the she-ra form? if just seems to me that she-ra was a regular person who was taller and slightly stronger.
even in s4, where adora finally got tired of catra's shit, there were very few instances of her fighting catra as an equal or defeating catra. i guess some of it had to do with the fact that catra didn't want to face adora and sent double trouble in her place instead.
she-ra didnt really do much for the plot, she certainly didn't make adora's job any easier, since adora got her ass beat whether she was in the she-ra form or not. she was taller and stronger but the strength didn't really matter.
if she-ra was really created as a weapon, you'd think that the first ones would make it more durable and strong. but the outfit was flimsy and easily torn through, the sword didn't seem too different from a regular sword and there wasn't much improvement to her agility. it seems like all that's needed to defeat the legendary invincible warrior is a teenage catgirl who slacked off during her training and had only her claws for weapons. doesn't seem like a very powerful weapon to me.
and honestly, i feel like adora herself was mostly reduced to the dumb blonde jock stereotype after a while. i've mentioned this before how in s1, adora was shown to be very diligent, strategic and a capable fighter. but all of that is thrown away in the later seasons and her only strength seems to be her physical strength, which she doesn't use much of.
what's even more disappointing is that adora never faces off with hordak. hordak is literally the leader of the horde, adora is trying to bring down the horde. you would think that she would have some sort of animosity with hordak. you would expect to see fight scenes or at least a confrontation.
especially after the revelation that hordak was the one who adopted adora and took her into the horde, you would think that this would bring up a new dilemma. in any other story, i wouldn't be complaining. but this is literally a story about a war, where the chosen one is fighting the army led by an evil dictator. you would think that she would have a direct relationship with said dictator.
but no, the only person adora really seems to be opposing is catra. we're supposed to believe that there's a war going on, when the only rivalry that matters is adora vs catra (which is reduced to “oh they were just exes who couldn't get over each other haha silly lesbians” in s5).
(this isn't hate on adora btw it's a criticism on the crew-ra who had to go and make a regular catgirl stronger than the literal warrior goddess being.)
