She-ra Season 4 Review (Spoilers)

She-ra Season 4 Review (Spoilers)

Wow...Just wow. These past two seasons of She-ra have managed to blow me away. She-ra truly found its footing with season 3 and it hasn’t slowed down this season one bit. The character and relationship writing has been spot on and they managed to raise the stakes without losing the heart of the series, which is a difficult feat. The first season, while a pretty strong start, had some trouble with balancing the tone. It would go from incredibly light and goofy to dark and serious and touch on some really heavy stuff which was jarring at times. The show seemed to mostly correct that problem with season 2 which was largely a transition season for the series and was the calm before the storm. Seasons 3 and 4 have truly been great. They both greatly expanded the lore of the world and series while producing character and relationship focused episodes that have been some of my favorite episodes of tv.

She-ra, while bright and flashy, has always been a character focused show. This season puts heavy focus on Glimmer, Adora, Catra, and Scorpia. The deteriorating relationship between Glimmer and Adora is the driving force behind this season and all of the tension feels believable. Glimmer’s stress over her new position as queen and grief over the loss of her mother lead to her making questionable choices and that become more and more morally ambiguous all while still believing that she’s on her “hero” pedestal. She trusts shadow weaver and doesn’t listen to her friends when they know more about the situation than she does. This lead to some believable, but at times frustrating, character development because I knew that if Glimmer just calmed down and listened a lot of the bad things that happened at the end of the season wouldn’t have. That is a minor complaint on my part because it gave Glimmer some much needed growth and a future potentially fascinating dual redemption arc with Catra.

Catra is the character I believe to be the best written in the entire show and that continues to be the case this season. Catra went through an arc similar to Zuko’s in the first part of book three. She finally achieved everything she believed she wanted at the cost of all her connections. This leads to her breaking down mentally because she can’t understand why she feels so empty despite achieving her “goals”. She breaks mentally and finally realizes that while she was a victim in the beginning every bad choice she’s made throughout the show is her own fault and she is the one who pushed everyone away despite their desperate attempts to reach her. The end of the season leaves with her having realized this and deciding to help Glimmer. “When you hit your lowest point you are open to the biggest change” basically embodies what I believe was happening with Catra’s arc. She had to spiral to her lowest when she thinks she should be at her highest to finally realize her own shortcomings and make steps towards change. I really hope that Catra is now on the road to redemption because so far she has been the most consistently fascinating character on the show and her redemption arc can be a powerful and well constructed one that will be remembered. 

Each season seems to have a stand out episode or two and for this season those episodes were “Hero” and the finale. “Hero” did a very good job of juxtaposing the present and the past to effectively show both Mara’s journey and the dissonance within Madam Razz’s head. It dropped game changing revelations about Mara’s end and the Heart of Etheria and ended on a tragic, bittersweet note that hits emotionally. Mara’s story may not have had a happy ending, but that doesn’t mean Adora’s won’t. Adora is simultaneously given a heavy load to bear and a weight is lifted off of her. Adora’s will to keep going despite the odds becomes even more commendable in light of these revelations, which comes to a head in the finale. The finale changed everything once again. The world and characters can’t go back to what they once were. Everything was flipped on its head. It ended many plot threads, but left a devastated Etheria and seemingly insurmountable odds for our heroes to face. It really seemed like the beginning of the end.

She-ra has managed to impress me yet again and I will not hesitate to say that it had a fantastic season. It seems to constantly one up itself with each season in one way or another. The show runners, voice cast, and animators have all done a phenomenal job. There is so much potential going forward with the world, characters, and conflict. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

deetheteadrinkingdragon: This parallel wounded me deeply. Okay I’ve been wanting to talk about this since season 3 dropped. Rayla in the first set of pictures looks determined and is smirking at the very real possibility she could die. It doesn’t phase her. She thinks that if she dies right then and there she would redeem herself and make up for her parent’s mistakes. And in the bottom photos she looks so sad. Rayla doesn’t want to die in the second set of photos, but can’t break away from the mistakes her parents made to live her own life. It’s tragic.

This parallel wounded me deeply. 

I Want to Take Time to Talk about What I Love about the Third Books in Rick Riordan’s Quintologies

The third books in Rick Riordan’s quintologies all create massive paradigm shifts within their respective series. In all of the third installments the stakes become real and the heroes are faced with decisions that alter the courses of the series and change the tone moving forward. I want to talk about each individual book and express my thoughts on how they change the status quo of the series and characters as well as what I liked about what was done and how I think they stand apart from the first two entries and set up the rest of the series.

First up is the Titan’s Curse. Many people, myself included, remember this book fondly because this is where Percy Jackson and the Olympians got serious. There were hints here and there about how dark the series could become, but no death stuck until this book and the deaths present carried lasting effects as the series continued. Bianca’s death affected Nico from this point up until the Hidden Oracle where he had finally made peace with what had happened. And even after the quest was over there is a hanging sense of melancholy and foreboding of the losses that had happened and the ones yet to come. This is where it hit that the trials would only get harder and more emotional from here. I really liked that the deaths in this book weren’t cheap and that they weren’t reversed. Bianca’s death had the biggest impact on the story moving forward of any of the death in any of Rick’s series (we’ll have to wait an see the ramifications of Jason’s death, but I think it may surpass this one in terms of personal impact on the characters). Zoe’s death is, in my opinion, the most emotional death in this book and really set the tone for the sacrifices that will have to be made in the future.

The Mark of Athena signalled the start of the seven questing together. This book gave us Annabeth’s solo quest, the beginning of greek-roman relations falling apart, and the iconic fall into Tartarus. This book probably changed the status quo of the series less than the other two books because the stakes were already built up in the two books leading up to this installment, but this book succeeds at building up to the following installments and showing the heroes both what they will have to endure and the trials they will have to face. Unlike the Titan’s Curse there isn’t a sense of mystery and foreboding because you know what trials the heroes will have to face moving forward. We know Percy and Annabeth will have to trek through Tartarus to get to the doors of death and we know that the rest of the seven will have to meet them on the other side, but it’s the fact that this is how it will play out that surprises us. It succeeds because this is the first time Gaea’s threat becomes real, where things don’t work out for the heroes and there isn’t some sense of momentary safety. It ends with the heroes in their most precarious situation, Annabeth and Percy are plummeting into Tartarus and the rest of the seven guided by Nico must find the doors of death, both of which are built up to be the most difficult tasks the half-bloods will have to face. I believe this book does a great job of paying off on the stakes set up in the previous two books and while there isn’t a sense of loss for characters who died it gives us a sense of loss over the fates of Percy and Annabeth, two characters we have followed since the beginning, with the knowledge their suffering is far from over.

The Burning Maze completely changed the tone of the trials of Apollo series and in my opinion for the better. I didn’t really like the Hidden Oracle. I found the Dark Prophecy to be good, but not anything special compared to Rick’s other books. The Burning Maze blew me out of the water. This book gave us the most radical shift in tone and changed the main players within the story permanently. Piper and Apollo change the greatest throughout the course of the story and I was captivated by how much they changed within the span of one book. Apollo, throughout the course of this book, truly learns the pain and suffering demigods go through because of the gods and by the end had resolved to remember what it’s like to be human. This is such a radical shift from the arrogant self-centered character we were introduced to in the Hidden Oracle. There were deaths that changed the characters and I hope carry through and guide the characters actions going forward. I really liked that Grover, Jason, and Piper all came back for this book and it was a really good move on Rick Riordan’s part. While a lot of people are mad Jason died in this series and not the heroes of olympus I really liked the decision. I liked Jason in HoO and having him die after surviving all the trials he was put through by being brought into yet another quest and having him stand up for Apollo in HoO it made it have more meaning to Apollo specifically. It also helped to emphasize the message that the gods are unfair. Jason was put through trial after trial and in the end it was Apollo and the god’s mistakes that did him in and makes Apollo realize that he has to remember what it means to be human in the mythological world. Piper was really compelling in this book and the development she was given in this book alone put her in my top 5 favorite characters in Rick’s mythological series.

Spiderman Far From Home Spoiler Review

I can honestly say I came out of this movie pleasantly surprised. The movie was much better than the trailers made it out to be. I have always preferred spiderman as a solo hero and this was a welcome return to that. I wasn’t sure what to expect because so little of the movie was shown in the trailers, but they managed to stick the landing and check off just about every box I would want for a spiderman movie. 

Tom Holland was amazing as Peter Parker and his classmates were really funny and endearing. I especially like how they handled “the blip” situation and addressed the fallout of Infinity War and Endgame without letting it overtake the film. The only real problem I had with Homecoming, that Peter was getting too much from Iron man instead of making his own things, was remedied with this film by having Peter create his own suit and showing off his intelligence in action. The high school relationship drama was much better this time around with Peter and MJ as well as Ned and Betty. Peter and MJ had actual conversations that showed that they played well off each other and were really just teenagers trying to navigate their feelings for each other and it was done really well. Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio was perfect. I found Mysterio to be an interesting villain and thought Jake Gyllenhaal brought a charisma to the part that only he could achieve. Mysterio has always been more of a supporting villain to a bigger threat so the fact that they managed to make him stand on his own and play off Peter so well was a welcome change. The cast overall was fantastic and I don’t think there was any character I disliked.

This film had Peter truly becoming Spiderman. It put him in a place where he needed to grow up, become independent, and get out of iron man and the rest of the avengers shadows. He couldn’t be the kid who ran into situations he wasn’t prepared for without a plan and he had to start making things for himself. The scene where he breaks down at Happy because of the pressure and the pedestal he had Tony on was where the film really kicked it into high gear. It was moment after moment of Peter being the Spiderman we know and love. I loved that they had Peter make his own suit and I think I felt his achievements in the final fight to be more earned because of that, he had to create gadgets specifically to counter Mysterio himself. The fights with mysterio were some of the most interesting and inventive of any hero-villain solo movie battles. Both character’s were made to pull out their entire arsenals to take down the other. When Peter finally used his spider sense to take down mysterio I was practically cheering. 

This movie was a really enjoyable solo hero film and I would recommend it to anyone. It is visually stunning while also being really character centric. Spiderman is hands down my favorite hero and I felt that this film did this adaptation of him justice. I do still wish marvel would stop pretending Uncle Ben didn’t exist, but I’m glad they did address his guilt over not being able to prevent Tony’s death and the pressure he feels to live up to the expectations he places on himself. I also had a problem with the lack of focus on Peter and May’s personal problems because May doesn’t really have a job and neither does Peter so how is Peter going on this school trip? I also wish that they hadn’t had as much school scenes because it took away from Peter’s personal struggles with Tony’s death and Mysterio. They are working hard to show Peter’s growth as Spiderman and I appreciate they aren’t rushing it. This film is a good addition to the spiderman franchise and is a really fun and worthwhile watch.

She-ra Season 1 Review

I just watched the netflix She-ra reboot and have to say I really enjoyed it. The characters are all enjoyable, the story is fun and engaging, and it produced one of my favorite animated episodes of the year. I came into this series knowing very little about She-ra and now want to go check out the original series to see the inspiration behind the show.

I really enjoyed the characters in She-ra and thought all their distinct personalities played off each other really well and thought the friendships and dynamics between the main characters were some of the strongest parts of the show. Bow and Glimmer’s friendship is really fun and it’s refreshing to see no romance within the main trio. Dreamworks managed to yet again create a protagonist and antagonist that I love with a complex dynamic that embodies the saying “there’s a thin line between love and hate.” It left me wanting to see more of these characters and excited to see where their arcs will take them.

The pilot of She-ra introduced the characters, world, and central conflict in a way that excited me to watch and learn more about them all. The next couple episodes were entertaining and fun, but followed a pattern that made them predictable. The repetition of episodes 4-6 were my only real complaint because I still enjoyed the character interactions present. Once it hit episode 7 the show hit the ground running and produced my aforementioned favorite episode with episode 11 entitled “Promise”. Promise was a half hour character and relationship study of Catra and Adora that was jaw-droppingly directed. It came to an emotional conclusion that left me immediately clicking the next episode button. I cannot say enough good things about this episode. I highly recommend watching it for yourself.

All in all this season had a strong start and has a lot of potential to grow. The ending set up a conflict that I hope to see come to fruition in later seasons. I recommend you watch this show and form an opinion for yourself.

Korra’s Growth (Book 4: Balance)

Korra has been a character defined by her resilience. She is broken down time and time again and the tolls she is forced to pay become greater with each season. The biggest problem with her resilience was that to forge forward she pushed her pain back and with the breaking of her spirit and body in Book 3 she can’t push it back and avoid it any longer. This time she can’t move forward until she deals with the trauma of what has happened to her. People seemed to struggle with understanding Korra’s mental illness and even Korra herself struggled to understand it. Korra’s journey to recover brings her to a greater understanding of who she is and this understanding allows her to open herself up to her enemies and friends in a way she couldn’t before. She grows to realize that being the avatar isn’t really about being able to bend all the elements, but who she is as a person. The most influential avatars were able to enact real change during their time because of their ideals and their individual identities. Korra’s struggle to grasp this and discover her own identity is realized in this Book.

Korra was at her lowest point from the end of book 3 to the beginning of book 4. Her struggles with identity and ptsd don’t just go away and she can’t truly move forward until she faces them. She avoids them for many years and they fester into a negative mindset towards herself. She completely disregards her own wellbeing throughout the latter part of the Korra Alone episode and spirals into a state of self destruction in her desperation to get better and discover herself. Her recovery process is slow which frustrates her because the longer she is incapacitated the longer others do her “job” for her and the less her place in the world matters. Korra’s decision to go out on her own mirrors Zuko’s in the episode that this one was named after, Zuko Alone. They are both trying to discover for themselves what they should do and their identity separate from their birthright and their frustration at their inability to find what they are searching for leads to their inward anger turning towards an outward conflict. With Korra the outward conflict manifests differently in that she sees herself. That version of her is a manifestation of her trauma and the destruction of the basis of her believed identity. She tries to defeat it and destroy it, but fails time and time again. She takes a while to learn that she can’t destroy it but instead needs to accept it and learn to channel it positively because it has shaped her and made her who she is. She struggles with this and it leads her to Toph. Toph is exactly what she needs at this moment because Toph won’t hold back and will be frank with her. Korra needs to know that she isn’t in this alone but she also needs someone able to give her a reality check. She is so busy fighting herself that she hasn’t taken the time to think of what she is really running from and Toph opens her eyes to what exactly that is. 

Korra was completely broken after her confrontation with the red lotus. This was the third time that she had hit “rock bottom” and to her it must have seemed like everytime her rock bottom somehow got lower. She grows to subconsciously dread what could come next which leads to her inadvertently holding herself back from fully physically recovering. The fact that she has to be the one to take the poison out of her body shows that only she can make the decision to move forward and return to her duties as the avatar, no one else can do it for her. They can only help her get to that point. Toph not only opens Korra’s eyes to the reality of her physical state, but also teaches her how to see expand her view and see the world through a different lens in both a metaphorical and literal sense with the philosophies of her enemies and the spirit energy respectively. This widening of her scope makes it so that she can be found by the airbending siblings and in a way Korra has discovered a part of herself that she didn’t know about, her connection to the whole world through energy bending. Once Korra is found by the airbender children she decides to remove the poison and go with them to Zaofu. In this moment she decided to stop letting her fear hold her back from doing what she needs. She had conflicting feelings because she simultaneously dreaded the possibility of the avatar having no place in the world and the pain that came from being the avatar. Her decision to move forward in spite of these fears and face at least the physical part of her fear shows her desire to do what she believes is right and her resilience. In Zaofu she is brought face to face with Kuvira, the source of unrest. Korra tries to approach the situation with diplomacy first, much to the chagrin of Opal and Suyin, showing a blatant change from previous seasons. Korra admits that the “old her” would have jumped straight into physical conflict with Kuvira to end this, but she thinks that there must be a better way. Korra knows now that solving problems with force more often than not causes detriment to both sides and that trying to find a middle ground is the best course of action for everybody. Suyin tries to end the conflict with force by, what is implied to be, assassinating Kuvira which escalates the situation and leads to the forceful takeover of Zaofu. Korra takes considerably more caution and only uses violence when absolutely necessary, but mentally Korra still hasn’t completely recovered from the fight with Zaheer and sees the shadow version of herself projected onto Kuvira. Korra sees herself in Kuvira: the confident attitude, adeptness at the physical side of bending, and her penchant for physical conflict. Kuvira is a dark mirror to what Korra could have been if she hadn’t gone through the trials that she did. She is a dark version of what Korra’s trauma could have made her if she didn’t decide to change and also a dark mirror of what Korra could have been if she hadn’t learned humility, but this also gives Korra hope that Kuvira wasn’t beyond reason or redemption. Korra can’t quite reach Kuvira yet though because she hasn’t yet dealt with the mental and spiritual block she has that is preventing her self-realization. Korra hasn’t fully realized the similarities between her and Kuvira and found a way through to her. 

Korra is then pushed into a situation where she needs to confront the root of her spiritual disconnect and the man who pushed her to her physical and mental limits. She initially confronts Zaheer to say to his face that she isn’t afraid, but she’s lying when she says this and he calls her out on it. He calls her out on her denial. The problem isn’t that she’s afraid it’s that she won’t accept what happened to her and that she is afraid, she’s pushed it back like she did everything else. Zaheer guiding her into the spirit world marks a notable change within Korra in that she found a middle ground with an enemy and accepts his help. She realizes that his offer for help is genuine because he realizes that his actions have brought about the exact opposite effect of what was intended. Her acceptance of his help is where she enacts Toph’s lesson about learning from her enemies and it is through these actions of trust towards her enemy that she is able to grow to empathize with her enemies to the point where she can get them to trust her and end a conflict without force. By accepting what has happened to her she is able to feel whole and stronger than before. She has discovered who she is and is now confident in that identity. 

She uses this new understanding of herself to become the leader she was always meant to be. She leads the republic city forces against Kuvira’s colossus and cooperates seamlessly with everybody to infiltrate and take Kuvira and the colossus down. Once the colossus is down Korra tries to reason with Kuvira. Now that the weapon of mass destruction is no longer threatening anybody Kuvira no longer has her power over everybody and there is a greater chance of getting through to her now that she has lost her advantage. Korra realizes that to prevent greater bloodshed Kuvira needs to stand down. Korra deciding to protect Kuvira from the spirit energy blast was the culmination of her journey as a person and as the avatar. Her deciding to protect Kuvira shows her growth in empathy and desire to help not only her friends, but also her enemies. Kuvira and Korra are mirrored against each other again in the spirit world with Korra blue and Kuvira originally being a purple Korra. This visualizes what Korra herself has come to realize about the similarities between her and Kuvira. Korra uses this understanding to connect with Kuvira and be honest about her own struggles and find common ground. She has come to see that no one ideology has all the answers and that to truly achieve balance she needs to open herself up to change. Through her trials and tribulations she has remained resilient and picked herself up each and every time she fell. It is through this desire to keep going that Korra is able to find ways to grow. Korra had to find balance within herself and with that personal growth came spiritual growth and an ability to change the world for the better through lessons learned from her enemies.