She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.13, "Heart, Part 2"

Read the previous entry here!

She-Ra comes to an expected, happy end.

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5.13, "Heart, Part 2"

Written by Noelle Stevenson, Josie Campbell, Katherine Nolfi, Laura Sreebny, and M. Willis
Directed by Christina "Kiki" Manrique and Roy Burdine

Synopsis

That's never a good sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora lies wounded in the approach to the Heart of Etheria. Catra attacks her assailant, Shadow Weaver moving to assist her. Catra urges Adora on as she faces the Etherian security, while, elsewhere, Glimmer faces her controlled father, Micah, and Bow strives to avoid Scorpia's attacks in the Horde installation, aided by Melog. Matters proceed ill for the lot of them, though they continue to struggle.

Glimmer breaks through Micah's power with some difficulty. Bow continues Entrapta's work, though he cannot evade Scorpia for long. In the event, he does not need to; Entrapta's device works, and the control chips are disrupted, freeing those who had been placed under their command. Prime orders retribution as Bow broadcasts a call to rebel that reaches across Etheria.

Ooh. Shiny.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The fight at the approach to the Heart of Etheria continues. Horde Prime projects into it, distracting Catra as Shadow Weaver presses them toward the Heart, itself. They reach it, and Adora begins to suffer the effects of carrying the failsafe as Shadow Weaver finds herself empowered. Catra's suffering calls Adora to her, and Shadow Weaver sacrifices herself to save them both.

They press on as the fight elsewhere continues. At the Heart itself, Adora struggles to return to her form as She-Ra while Horde Prime's assault on the Heart continues. Adora tries to send Catra away; she refuses, remaining beside Adora as the failsafe begins to work.

Horde Prime makes contact with the Heart. Hordak turns on Horde Prime after being ordered to kill Entrapta, casting him down--only to be suborned in sequence, taken over by Prime. Prime takes Entrapta to Etheria to die by power of the Heart, which he begins to trigger.

Love is like that sometimes.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora struggles to use the failsafe. She lapses into unconsciousness and a vision of a happy future with Catra, and with Glimmer and Bow. Prime interferes with it, and Catra calls to her, confessing her love for her. Adora affirms that she returns the emotion and, enheartened, she trips the failsafe, thwarting Prime's plans. As She-Ra, she emerges to confront Prime directly, and she defeats him handily and completely, restoring the vitality of the planet. Hordak is left behind, confused, and the process of healing begins.

Discussion

While Alcuin might well ask quid enim Adora cum Christo, the final episode of the series, like many medieval works and many others, makes much of Christian messianic imagery. The wound in Adora's side evokes it, as do the repeated self-sacrifices intended and enacted, as well as the self-abnegation in Adora's fatalistic drive to enact the failsafe. So does the seeming enactment of the failsafe through an act of love; it happens when Adora and Catra admit their feelings to each other, after all. So, too, does the paradasical Etheria that emerges after Adora drives out Horde Prime from Hordak (itself in line with Christian doctrine and, in its pointed nonviolence, obliquely evocative of the Dream of the Rood). Indeed, the episode fairly rolls around in Christian imagery--interestingly, given the prevalence of lesbian relationships in the episode and the prevalent attitude espoused by professed Christians about such things. (Then again, lesbianism is hardly unknown to what is traditionally known as the medieval, as Erik Wade points out on Twitter.) So there's that.

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There's clearly a lot left to unpack, not only in the present episode, but across the series. I hardly claim to be the single authoritative expert on it, and I welcome comments from others.

With the series ended, a new project will be coming up in this webspace soon. But, for the moment, it is time for something of a break. Check back soon!