She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.2, "Launch"

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

Plans get well and truly underway as the final season of the series moves ahead.

---

5.2, "Launch"

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

Synopsis

One way to ensure an audience...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Horde Prime broadcasts a message to Etheria, one proselytizing himself to the world and calling for the surrender of She-Ra to him. Adora herself continues to suffer exhaustion from her exertions, and Bow tries, with limited success, to allow her some time to rest.

While she does, the other princesses try to plan out a method for finding Glimmer. Entrapta's contributions, while enthusiastic, are not helpful, and her history of focus on machines over people is a point of contention. Still, her expertise is recognized, and recognized as needed.

It does not look comfortable.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Glimmer remains a prisoner on Horde Prime's ship, with Catra continuing the watch her despite Prime's orders. Hordak confronts her until he is taken over by Horde Prime; after, he escorts Glimmer away.

Adora sleeps fitfully, dreaming of Etheria and Horde Prime. She wakes to follow a vision of She-Ra gleaming in the darkness.

The other princesses help Entrapta to triangulate signals from the Horde to be able to find Glimmer. Communication issues interfere. The lack of tactical acumen shows in the attempt.

Horde Prime shows Glimmer a series of artifacts from worlds that no longer exist. He tries to cozen her into helping him acquire She-Ra and the Heart of Etheria weapon. He also shows her that Micah lives, offering to preserve her friends in exchange for her aid. Glimmer rejects the offer.

Typical escort mission...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

The princesses' mission proceeds with difficulty. Entrapta's inattention to her surroundings triggers local alarms, ensuring that a fracas ensues after an emotional eruption. The mission succeeds, revealing the location of Horde Prime's ship--and incoming Horde forces.

Adora, following the vision, finds herself transported to the site of a portal. She confronts her incapacity and rehearses her choices and their consequences, and she arrives at a decision--and wakes back in her tent with new purpose. And she makes her escape from Etheria, with Bow and Entrapta, to retrieve Glimmer. Micah leads the effort to cover their escape, successfully and fabulously.

Fabulously, indeed.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Discussion

The penultimate scene, in which Micah poses as She-Ra to draw the Horde's attention away from the launching ship, attracted no small attention online after the final season was released. While some viewers, backward, might look at the tactic as shameful or as an indication that the series is "pandering," others, more aware of medievalist antecedents, might point out Eowyn's participation in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields as a possible referent. Still others, more aware of medieval antecedents, might point out the repeated use of such a ruse in the chivalric tradition from which the series appears to borrow. Marion Wynne-Davies points out at least one such example in Malory's Lancelot, and Debbie Kerkhof later expounds on no small number of examples thereof. And other medieval understandings--the Norse Loki and Þorr come to mind, and others' minds are no doubt more comprehensive than mine--point to similar examples.

Such complaints as get voiced all too often reflect a limited, inaccurate understanding of the medieval European. This is not to say it was a heyday of progressive thought, certainly, but there is all too much misunderstanding of what was at work then, and no small part of that misunderstanding is deliberate. And if it is the case that a children's show can help people to better understand what was and what is, and who they are, then that has to be accounted to the good.