She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.1, "Horde Prime"

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The final season of the series gets off to a disheartening start.

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5.1, "Horde Prime"

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

Synopsis

A planetary blockade in three dimensions? Clearly a better class of villain.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The greater Horde armada surrounds Etheria. Its constructs make planetfall, sending out scouts and troops that begin to assail the populace--and that Adora, Bow, Swift Wind, and the princesses fight against. Adora, lacking She-Ra's power, is less effective against the onslaught, though not for lack of trying. Her efforts attract the attention of the titular Horde Prime.

While Adora recovers from injuries sustained in the fight, she dreams of her experiences and of Horde Prime, seeing a golden figure. When she starts awake from the dream, she is greeted by her broken sword and moves to survey the ongoing rebellion. Matters are grim, with many injuries and much fatigue. Bow and Entrapta report problems with Mara's ship and Glimmer's location, and Adora presses them to work more diligently. She also enters an ongoing discussion among Micah, Shadow Weaver, and the princesses about using the Heart of Etheria against the greater Horde; the idea is vetoed once again. Adora volunteers to take a team to act on intelligence reported during the meeting.

The underlying sickly green is a giveaway.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Glimmer wakes in captivity aboard Horde Prime's ship. She surveys her surroundings briefly before finding herself without her accustomed powers. Catra observes her briefly.

On Etheria, Swift Wind and Scorpia confer about their just-completed mission. They find themselves in accord, and Adora considers her lost abilities as a counterattack approaches; she charges in.

Catra finds herself summoned to Horde Prime. He confronts her with information taken from Hordak's mind, and she dickers for her continued existence. Seemingly at the same time, Adora dreams again, attempting to follow the golden figure as it stalks off; she wakes again after her reckless assault on the counterattack, having been paralyzed by Scorpia. Bow upbraids her recklessness, but Adora stumbles onto a workable idea to trace Glimmer's location, and they purpose to follow up on it. They proceed to capture one of the Horde clones.

Is Glimmer the canary, here?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Glimmer rails against her captivity, and Catra taunts her. Glimmer, however, knows that Catra is also a captive and confronts her with that. They are interrupted by a summons to dine with Horde Prime.

Adora and her companions interrogate the captured clone, who displays a religious devotion to Horde Prime. The clone also affirms that an attack on the rebellion is coming, one heralded by a sign from Micah and in progress before they can arrive back. They do manage to evacuate successfully as the dinner with Horde Prime proceeds--including tacit threats against Etheria, attacks against which Prime shows Glimmer and Catra to compel Glimmer to divulge information about Adora. Glimmer argues for Adora's life, successfully.

This is not the face of confidence.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora realizes her incapacity as she is rescued by her companions once again. Bow reaffirms their group commitment, though, and Adora successfully captains the rebel forces through their evacuation, leading them to a place she has seen with Razz and in visions--where they can be safe, at least for a time.

After the dinner, Horde Prime confronts Catra about her own attachment to Adora--and her seeming uselessness to him.

Discussion

While the season was released before the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it is difficult not to rewatch the episode against the context of those killings and their painful, pointed reminders of systemic racism--and the greater Horde is overwhelming in its whiteness (despite the voice actor in question, Keston John), as well as being an invading, conquering, rapacious group. The Saxon connection noted in the previous commentary seems to apply, here, then, although the correspondence remains inexact--largely because of the heavily religious overtones imparted to the invasion by the words of the captured clone.

The religious fervor, however, also rings of common depictions of the European medieval. Common understanding pegs it as a particularly devout time, one governed in large part by centralized, organized religion. And there is some truth to such understanding; the Catholic Church in medieval Western Europe did exercise no small amount of influence on daily life. It was not quite as pervasive as is commonly held, of course, and the religion at work was not the same as most modern iterations, as casual glances at various works attest. (Chaucer and the Land of Cokaygne come to mind as examples.) Even so, there seems to be something of the Crusader mentality about the Horde as it approaches Etheria.

It is not something that creates a favorable impression.