painfully blasted through these episodes the last two days, posted my thoughts in the netflix thread not realizing we had one here Spoiler I'd seen the complaints by the hardcore fans about how this was basically going to be a show about Teela and the typical sjw rants that came with it, which I took with a grain of salt because people tend to exaggerate even minor pushes of inclusivity nowadays, but holy hell this thing really was insufferable. Between basically every battle scene is some sappy narrative with secondary characters that tries to pull on the heart strings, only they've done nothing to build the characters beforehand and make us care about them so none of it lands. Teela in particular is entirely unlikeable, she has no personality except for contempt towards people who actually care about her because she wasn't let in on He-Man's identity, so obviously it's a joy following her around as the protagonist and not tiresome at all. People tune in to He-Man for two characters, and both of them were gone after the first episode until the very end, with He-Man/Adam "dying" for a second time, so I doubt he'll be involved much for part 2 as well. It would've been perfectly fine for Teela to have her own story arc on the side, in fact her struggle and eventual rise to acquire the title "Man at Arms" could've been a season long narrative with a good payoff, but instead they just plop that privilege on her in the very beginning with no backstory simply to have a more powerful female character for the sake of it. It's just completely transparent that their main intention behind the story is to hit a social checklist right out the gates instead of building towards making these characters as equals to their male counterparts with a compelling narrative. On the bright side though, I waited for the edible to peak before firing this up, and that first episode with the kick ass intro, followed by the sensory overload of characters and battles with great visuals and score was kind of blowing my mind. All downhill from there though.
if anyone's interested btw, I found a youtube playlist that has the complete series from 2002, started watching last night
I Spoiler read that about Teela and thought it was just fan bitching but then watched the series. Holy hell that was heavy to slug through. No one likes Teela that much. Damn. That whole dealing with loss and everyone keeping a secret shit seems like a hard thing to get right in writing let alone animation and how it affects a character. Teela comes off as unlikeable even with dealing with all that and maybe it would've worked if they'd drawn her younger at first and closer to Adam's size and age to make the them being best friends thing more believable. It was an interesting idea to have them die at the start but don't make the entire season about Teela trying to get magic back and return them. Maybe three episodes at most and it would've been better. Otherwise it seemed like someone really pushed hard for Sarah Michelle Gellar to get more work voicing the character. Liked how they mixed in the bad guys at least and orko wasn't a complete joke. And can't complain about getting the wonderbread he-man either. Still better than she-ra.
I was thinking the newer one on Netflix. Forgot how many people spin their weapons in the 2000's he-man cartoon.
Quit after the 3rd episode. Hot garbage. Basically before this came out an insider found out some plot details on Twitter said He man wasn't a big part of the show, people then interneted, Kevin Smith then responded and said that's not true, "I love He man." Then it came out, he lied. They did a couple interviews on YT he disabled comments. Everyone, including female reviewers are saying it's just over the top and forced. He's on Twitter now doing damage control and throwing out plot points for the next part to keep people interested Spoiler I can't imagine what they were thinking knowing the target demographic, and then immediately killing off the two most recognizable characters. To know less make a trio of unlikeable female characters the main focus.
Watched part 2 last night just to give the story a fair chance, it had its moments but didn't do much to change my mind. Honestly think it would've been fine overall if they made Teela actually somewhat likable and didn't spend every other scene unsuccessfully trying to make you cry with all of the sappy narratives. Such a shame too because aesthetically they knocked everything out of the park.