She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.6, "Taking Control"

Read the previous entry here!
Read the next entry here!

Another problem emerges for the resistance to the Horde as the final season of She-Ra continues.

---

5.6, "Taking Control"

Written by Noelle Stevenson, Laura Sreebny, Josie Campbell, Katherine Nolfi, and M. Willis
Directed by Roy Burdine and Mandy Clotworthy

Synopsis

Adora and company make for Etheria, Darla experiencing some difficulties as they do. Entrapta attempts to effect repairs, aided by Wrong Hordak. Catra convalesces. Adora, Glimmer, and Bow discuss the resurgent She-Ra, and Glimmer moves to celebrate. Their passage is marked by Horde patrol craft, however, which move to intercept them.

This is not the face of someone doing well.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Catra has difficulty processing what has happened to her. She flashes back to what she suffered at the hands of Horde Prime as Adora checks on her once again; she lashes out at Adora, rejecting attempts to assist her. Adora expresses confusion at it, and the two come to argue once again. Adora stalks off, and Catra is left hurting.

On Etheria, Swift Wind reports his findings to Micah as some of the princesses cavort. Micah frets about Glimmer and reports on Horde activity, and the lot proceed to work against it.

Yeah, that looks like it'll be a problem.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora frets about Catra to Glimmer. Glimmer continues to prepare a celebratory meal as the Horde patrol craft approach. Concerns about their detection are raised, as are concerns about evading the patrol.

Worrisome.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Micah, Frosta, Spinerella, Netossa, and Swift Wind proceed to where reports had had Horde activity. Micah makes awkward attempts to connect to Frosta along the way. They find the village, one they had previously saved, eerily quiet, and they are invited to dine in an uncomfortable situation. When they try to leave, they are prevented--and the locals attempt to place them under Horde control. It is a narrow thing, but they escape, aided by the power of She-Ra.

Yeah, that's definitely going to be a problem.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The Darla enters an asteroid field to try to avoid pursuit--unsuccessfully. The jarring triggers more flashbacks for Catra, and Adora recognizes that Catra is the source of the Horde's pursuit. Catra recognizes that she is not the only one who had been put under Horde control, but she still chafes at the prospect of Entrapta removing the control chip. Adora overrules her based on the safety of the ship but allows that she will let Catra go after, if she wants. Catra asks her to remain, however, and she is able to use her connection to the Horde to pull down information before Entrapta removes the control chip. Summoning the power of She-Ra, Adora defeats the patrol craft, and the group proceeds to a home under siege--from within as well as without.

Discussion

The control chips used by the Horde evoke demonic possession, of course, particularly given the appearance of Horde Prime and his many clones. A casual review of scholarship on medieval ideas of demonic possession indicates that the topic was far from uncommon in medieval European literature--and it is notable that a great many "cases" of it were associated with women; note that the two people shown in the present episode to carry the control chips are women: Catra and Spinnerella (voiced, interestingly, by showrunner Noelle Stevenson). It is a subtle touch, perhaps, but one that seems to align with the attested medieval, reinforcing the medievalism that pervades the series. It also serves as a reminder that the medieval continues to influence prevailing culture--and not only through inept "hot takes" on plagues and assertions on social media platforms that medievalism is "not a thing."

One area into which the present episode makes some foray--only some, because it remains a children's show--that much medieval work does not is in dealing with the emotional consequences of fighting. Certainly, medievalist works tend to avoid the issue, which betrays either an assumption that the kind of violence that marks chivalric works and those that borrow from them is "natural"* and appropriate, thus imposing no penalty and needing no redress or that the mental condition** that allows for such immunity is a desirable, "heroic" attribute. (I know Tolkien treats it somewhat with Frodo, but I also keep in mind Shiloh Carroll's comments about Martin and derivative works). The present episode, as much of the rest of the series, seems to share neither assumption, and if that is a deviation from the typical depictions of the medieval and the medievalist, then it seems to me to be a good one.

*Yes, I am using the term loosely if not sloppily.

**There is a reason I use the phrasing; I am the kind of doctor I am and not the kinds I am not.