Wednesday Has the Power

[evelyn_b]

What I've Been Reading

At this point Tarek attempted to draw an analogy to a TV series starring Ghada Abdel Razek: Surely you couldn’t try the actress for murder, he reasoned, just because she’d killed someone in one of the episodes? The prosecutor took in this new piece of information and said, deadly serious: “So you’re telling me this is a TV show now?” Tarek tried to explain, but the prosecutor was warming to his theme. “In that case,” he replied with a confident flourish, “where are the other episodes?”

Rotten Evidence by Ahmed Naji.

Otherwise, not much! Thomas Cromwell is still climbing a rickety ladder to who knows what. I got this weird passion-project sci-fi anthology as a gift from one of its contributors, but since the only commentary I have to offer is a series of screeds about how poorly edited it is, it's probably best that I refrain for now.

For the Honor of Love

I liked the Noelle Stevenson She-Ra reboot so much that I've started watching the orginal Filmation She-Ra from 1985. I'm pretty sure I didn't watch it when it was new, though I know we had some (terrible) He-Man episodes on cassette, and I'm almost sure I had a stuffed animal of one of the annoying comic relief characters (a prissy koala with rainbow wings). The Horde is a little more successful as a conquering force in this version, and this version of Hordak is having a much better time - festooning himself with bones, cackling up a storm, flying around in a fighter plane with his own face painted on the nose. The voice acting is astonishing right across the board; you would think it had been deliberately directed to drive adults and sensitive older siblings from the room. Maybe it was? The best thing I can say about She-Ra is that Bow is a cinnamon roll in every continuity. The second-best thing is that the closing credits theme ROCKS.

There's Always Next Week

Maybe I'll be a little further into The Dark Forest by then?

Comments

[osprey_archer]

OMG, I can't believe the She-Ra reboot cheated us of a prissy koala with rainbow wings! THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES. (I'm not actually sure what possibilities I see except that a koala with rainbow wings would be adorable, but surely that would be enough??)

[evelyn_b]

I'm sure it would have been a nuanced and loveable prissy koala with rainbow wings! The effect of watching Original She-Ra has been to make me even more appreciative of the fanfic acheivements of New She-Ra. I bet they could have made me cry buckets over Prissy Rainbow Koala.

He's introduced as a sort of shoulder companion for Bow, so it's easy to associate him mentally with Bow's dads and their sedate library life. I wouldn't want him to be in every episode, but he could have been Bow's co-conspirator in hiding his secret rebel identity from the History House (but why. . .if his family didn't want him to learn archery. . . WHY DID THEY NAME HIM BOW?)

[osprey_archer]

Oh God, absolutely. Well, probably. I must say I found Swift Wind the Rainbow-Winged Horse kind of annoying, so I might have reacted the same way to Prissy Rainbow Koala? But honestly, I'm just imagining Prissy Rainbow Koala dying in the attack on History House, and Bow cradling his inert, fluffy, rainbow-winged body to his chest, and... aw, man.

[evelyn_b]

Swift Wind was probably the most annoying character in the show (maybe Entrapta was objectively more annoying at times, but in a way that I personally found funny), but if She-Ra Original Flavor has taught me anything, it's that Kids Today don't know how good they have it when it comes to the quality and depth of annoying comic relief characters.

(Swift Wind is direct from Original She-Ra, of course, with perhaps the least change of any of the characters. 100% the result of cynical marketing execs asking themselves: What can we get kids to buy a million of? RAINBOW UNICORN TALKING WING HORSE).

[pauraque]

if his family didn't want him to learn archery. . . WHY DID THEY NAME HIM BOW?

A question for the ages!

Though I will admit, it took me an embarrassing number of episodes to realize that his name was in fact Bow, as opposed to Bo or Beau.

[evelyn_b]

Same here; I had to see it in the credits to realize it wasn't a pun, it was just a literal description of his favorite weapon/instrument.

[thisbluespirit]

The second-best thing is that the closing credits theme ROCKS.

I don't remember much about She-Ra rather than He-Man, although I know I did watch some of it, but that I do recall! Although did they do the thing they did in He-Man where a character stood there at the end sometimes and explained the moral? Wee me was very down on that. I was reluctantly attracted to them because they were fantasy but despised them for not being any good at the same time (which now that I think about it is not the last time that's happened, although few things have been quite as worthy of my disdain as He-Man). Anyway I was team practically any other 1980s cartoon but especially Dungeons & Dragons, which was much better. I do not think I was wrong on that front.

ETA: He-Man also was responsible for the terrible thing where just because I wanted a Skeletor-with-a-poison-spitting-dragon action figure (it was in fact a water pistol!!) that I would appreciate other He-Man things. I did not and me and my bff spent a lot of scraping the picture off my despised He-Man lunch-box as a result.

(There was a Christmas special where Skeletor got infected by the Spirit of Christmas and it was the only good thing He-Man ever did, me and my sister felt. We would have watched 10 series of Skeletor has to deal with this being good thing, what now, why is not killing these random cute children but ALAS. It was back to He-Man beating him up every week and then still refusing to jail him or something sensible like that.)

(ok sorry, may still have traumatic He-Man related feelings)

[evelyn_b]

Although did they do the thing they did in He-Man where a character stood there at the end sometimes and explained the moral? Wee me was very down on that.

Wee you is CORRECT, and yes - only, weirdly, it's not a character from the show you've just watched, but a completely unrelated character who claims to have been hiding in one of the frames, who doesn't really even match the (admittedly awful) style of the animation, who pops out at the end to explain the moral. I don't know why, or if the character was supposed to be someone we recognized from another line of toys or what.

There was a Christmas special where Skeletor got infected by the Spirit of Christmas and it was the only good thing He-Man ever did, me and my sister felt.

That sounds AMAZING, and so does the Skeletor water pistol. I'm sorry for your He-Man trauma! The same thing happened to me only it was pigs; I liked one cute pig and suddenly everyone wanted to give me pigs for the next ten years.

[thisbluespirit]

a completely unrelated character who claims to have been hiding in one of the frames, who doesn't really even match the (admittedly awful) style of the animation, who pops out at the end to explain the moral.

I'm sure, with He-Man, I remember it being the characters, at least sometimes. How weird! Get your Moral instruction Action Figures here, kids!

That sounds AMAZING, and so does the Skeletor water pistol.

It didn't hold much water, but it was pretty good! I just had to look up the He-Man special and apparently it was a joint He-Man and She-Ra thing, but nothing made as big an imprint as this: ordak reappears and shoots down Skeletor's sky-scooter, crash-landing him in a snowy mountain range; because of this, Skeletor is now forced to bring his prisoners to Horde Prime on foot. During the trek, he experiences an uncharacteristic urge of kindness that results in him fitting the children with winter jackets to protect them from the cold, bringing Relay along so he doesn't freeze to death, and even protecting the children from a snowbeast. He also inquires the children about Christmas, all the while trying to reassure them - and himself - that he is still a bad guy.

It did finally kill off my grudging watch of He-Man, because now it was just a thing where he was unreasonably mean to Skeletor every week.

And I'm sorry about the ten years of pigs! At least the He-Man thing lasted a year, max. And it could be worse again - my Dad's Nan sent him Rupert the Bear annuals every year for Christmas. When he was twenty-one his mum finally had to break it to her that he'd grown out of them.

[evelyn_b]

He-Man did have the actual characters deliver the lessons, which makes a lot more sense, or more of the specific kind of sense these shows make.

my Dad's Nan sent him Rupert the Bear annuals every year for Christmas. When he was twenty-one his mum finally had to break it to her that he'd grown out of them.

That's too beautiful; you couldn't put that in a book without people complaining that you'd laid it on too thick. I'm just picturing your dad in his bachelor flat or college dorm, opening up his big Christmas envelope from Nan and nodding gently at the inevitabilty.

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know whether to spoil your mental picture or not, but while I could say that my Dad never got the chance for uni and was not sitting in a college dorm or bachelor pad (although it is just possible that he might have been in a horrible b&b/lodging house in some random town, depending on when he started doing the temporary opening manager thing for Halfords*) BUT the biggest thing is: my Dad would NEVER open a Christmas present alone and early. Even at 21.

(my Mum now; my Mum did at some young age, because that is the difference between them.)


*too much family info probably but he had this simultaneously great and very dispiriting job where he went in as acting manager for new branches of Halfords in the south west and then once he had got the place going nicely, they sent in the proper qualified manager to replace him and my Dad was off to some other new and weird west country town. Which was how he met my Mum and how, eventually, we came to be having this conversation on the internet.

[liadt]

All I can remember is liking He-Man more than She-Ra cos it had Skeletor and the goodie witch falcon woman looked cool. The comedy floating character was mega annoying and so was the moral at the end it irritated the hell out of me. And the sentimental bits of Racoons did too, bit random but it has a great 80s theme tune.

I did have a She-ra complete with horse and She-ra ruler (which I still have, gone a bit yellow now).

[evelyn_b]

I can't tell if He-Man is better than She-Ra or not. I do think the comic relief characters in She-Ra are a little less awful than He-Man's Floaty Guy, though still bad. The most powerful wince rays in She-Ra come from the minor villans - in particular Catra and this ridiculous bug-eye guy whose name I don't know, both of whom have unbelievably annoying voice acting. I mean almost literally unbelievable. I feel like my brain shorts out a little to keep from listening to them.

The She-Ra horse is pretty cool, but not as cool as Battle Cat, He-Man's giant green tiger with purple armor that you can ride on. But the downside of Battle Cat is that he is an extremely annoying comic relief tiger when not in battle form, while She-Ra's horse only talks when transformed and is no worse than anyone else on screen.

[liadt]

I suspect if I watched He-Man and She-Ra today I'd find them equally rubbish(!)! Still having less "comedy" characters must help She-ra's rating.