Guest Post: Ruth Lewis, "Provoking Thoughts: Reflections on the Section ‘Legacies of Tolkien’s Whiteness’ in the Call for Papers at the Kalamazoo Medieval Conference in the July 2020 Beyond Bree"

The following essay was kindly submitted by contributor Ruth Lewis, a British zoologist, writer, and illustrator with a strong interest in Tolkien. It is presented below with only minimal editorial adjustment. 

A version of the call for papers to which the essay responds can be found here.

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'ℑs Tolkien racist’ is an ‘old chestnut’ which should have long since been consigned to Frequently Asked Questions lists, right alongside ‘Do Balrogs have wings?’ and ‘Is Tolkien anti-feminist?’. That it is still being asked in as serious a forum as the Kalamazoo meeting is probably due in part to the phenomenon that Tom Shippey remarked on in Author of the Century with the example of Germaine Greer, who ranted on about Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings with total certainty – only to admit afterwards that she hadn’t read the book.
It is well worth remembering that Victorian and Edwardian Britain were not one single block of opinion about ‘race’. Ignorance and knowledge, distaste and interest, distant theory and on-the-spot practicality were all present, all muddled together, all subjects of discussion. Theory was tested in the hardest of practical exams, the unforgiving real world. Practical superiority of British forces over non-European peoples was not guaranteed until very late on indeed, within living memory for much of Tolkien’s lifetime. For every runaway victory such as Omdurman, there was a cracking defeat such as Isandhlwana. It is also worth remembering that Empire was not a foregone conclusion, but a matter of hot debate. As Tolkien grew up, as he wrote, every possible shade of opinion about ‘empire’ and ‘race’ that we can imagine – and some that might surprise us – coexisted within British society and thought. Only by recovering that historical reality can we understand how J.R.R. Tolkien could think with or against the turbulent intellectual currents of his own time.
The other reason why we are still asking questions such as ‘Is Tolkien racist?’ is, in fact, a backhanded compliment. We are still reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, unlike the works of most of Tolkien’s contemporaries and even many of his juniors. So it is a little too easy to criticise as if Tolkien were a living writer who could be expected to come up with a ‘woke’ bestseller next, and not someone born in 1892, who died in 1973. Stop and think about that for a minute; how much have attitudes changed since the 1970s? We don’t say half as much about the woeful presentation of women and non-Western European characters in books by the likes of Ian Fleming or Dennis Wheatley. They are dead in both senses, physically and culturally (the James Bond movies long since departed from any serious relationship with Fleming’s writing). Tolkien in contrast is still a living influence in our culture, and therefore we do ask these questions.
The problem with asking ‘is Tolkien racist’ one more time is that it blocks consideration of more interesting questions – such as ‘how do readers actually respond to books from outside their own culture?’, or even ‘what kind of book is The Lord of the Rings?’.
Now, I know that last looks like another old chestnut – but if we want to ask why Tolkien does not have the sort of ‘active female characters’ we prize, or any obvious non-European ones, in The Lord of the Rings, we need to ask it. Yes, on the surface The Lord of the Rings is fantasy. Scratch the surface, though, and it is amazingly realistic in some ways… such as moon phases, times and distances covered, and, yes, the composition of the Fellowship. At no point in time prior to the First World War would such a group have included women unless the setting explicitly included unusual peoples such as the Sarmatians who did have Amazons. That, by the way, is exactly what we find in the Silmarillion-tradition, with the Second House of the Edain and their women warriors. The same goes for people from outside the immediate geographical point of origin of a group such as the Fellowship of the Ring. It could happen, but the circumstances would be unusual.
The irony is that the very history and medieval fiction that gets cited as something too parochial to be useful in creating exactly such unusual circumstances and wider views is often much more diverse than we think. Even in recent times, ‘alternative’ voices do exist but don’t often get heard – such as the Dundee house-husband who told one 1920s journalist that it was harder work looking after one baby than being a riveter in the shipyards. Go back further and things change in strange ways. In the 3rd century CE a Greek author named Heliodorus could write a novel (yes, they did exist back then) called Aithiopika which is filled to the brim with active women, non-European characters, and cultural diversity, where nothing goes quite as we expect. To give just one example, in the final act the day is saved by ‘naked philosophers’ teaching a non-violent Way who persuade the Ethiopian king to change his mind by force of argument, not force of arms. There are men in skirts and women with weapons in Anglo-Saxon graves, ‘traditionally queer’ people obviously accepted by their community as such to be buried that way. There are medieval romances that cheerfully take their characters across seas and cultures, that don’t just see everyone different as an evil ‘other’, that do include surprising figures. Modern accounts of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival don’t often mention his half-brother Feirefiz, son of a Grail knight and an eastern princess, his piebald appearance showing his mixed ancestry, who may start out bringing an army to claim his heritage but ends up as a Grail Knight and the husband of a former Grail Maiden. Even on Munsalvasche, it seems, there may be many ways up the mountain.
Our current perceptions of ‘the medieval’ are the problem, far more than the real material. To present this material as ‘racist’, or to use it as a basis for secondary writing in that mode, is, bluntly, a perversion of the facts. That it can happen is regrettably not a surprise, given the nationalist ideas at the heart of much of the 19th century rediscovery of medieval literature. Just as serious if not more so has been the repeated narrowing of our view of medieval writing that has happened across the 20th century.
Stories like Bevis of Hampton (a medieval bestseller which I believe exists in a Yiddish translation, a copy of which turned up in Cairo – a lesson take by this!), which were available in versions for primary-school use in Britain before the First World War, are barely accessible for postgraduate readers nowadays. Eastern and Southern Europe is largely excluded from our perceived ‘medieval’ world of writing at the moment, let alone anywhere further away.
Whole areas of story widely familiar throughout the medieval era and across continents – such as the persistence of the Trojan legends that linked authors as various as Guido Delle Colonne in Sicily, Snorri Sturluson in Iceland and the Gawain-poet in England – have disappeared from view. Mehmed Osmanli bynamed Fatih, the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople, could use an ‘heirs of Troy’ strategy in propaganda and expect to be taken seriously, not laughed at – but we’re just puzzled. Snorri was using an ‘It’s Trojan, really’ strategy to rescue Norse myth and legend, but we don’t even see that far less ‘get’ it, either. We have lost sight of material that created important links across time and space, rather than being local and restricted. (And there is an even more crushing restriction in publication of medieval manuscripts; secular rather than sacred books barely get a nod. The Victorian ‘monks and missals’ idea persists to a ludicrous extent in the popular view of medieval books. That shapes people’s idea of where it is appropriate to use medievally-inspired styles, while books of history and legend languish unnoticed and rich possibilities for modern book art are ignored.)
In a very similar way, at the moment we really do not see the sheer spread of ‘medieval romance’. This was a web of story that in its day reached from Iceland to Baghdad and beyond, with readers eager for new stories translating and reworking tales across languages and cultures.
That takes me back to the question of reader response. There is a definite tendency to see Tolkien as a very English writer, whose local inspiration is perceived as shining through his writing. We have somehow lost sight of the possibility that it doesn’t always work like that. For some reason, useful critical ideas such as ‘the implied author’ or even ‘author writing in character’ have not made it into discussions of Tolkien’s work as far as I know. Preserved footage of the man himself, as well as some of his letters, makes it very clear that Tolkien is a ‘slippery’ author, a man whose distaste for Drama in theory is not matched by inability in fact or on paper – a man with a sense of humour about himself and the world. That makes ‘straight-faced’ interpretation awfully dangerous. In The Akallabeth, for one large example, Tolkien is channeling the Gildas of ‘On the Ruin of Britain’ quite successfully. The ‘implied author’ of that work is a decidedly unreliable chronicler whose position within the fiction needs to be thought about quite as much as the flesh-and-blood person holding the pen. ‘The mask of the actor’ can be ‘the mask of the author’ too, and where we can see it happening once, we really ought to be watching out for it elsewhere. Consideration of reader reaction, ideas about how we read and what we can do with (or to!) a text which we read, are another set of critical concepts which I for one have not seen brought into discussion of Tolkien. Teek-aye – sorry, let me translate; OK – I know I’m increasingly out of touch with, especially, American writing on Tolkien, and out of date on literary theory. The book at my side as I type this is Margaret Anne Doody’s The True Story of the Novel, Fontana/HarperCollins 1996. But just perhaps some of these ideas might still be useful to think with, before we start throwing babies out with the bathwater.
There is or was plenty of anecdotal evidence that people who read Tolkien can see his books quite differently to the ‘Englishness’ paradigm. On the specific question of ‘how do you think of hobbits’, for instance, the reader with an ‘innocent eye’ does seem to imagine them as people of their own country and culture. That doesn’t sound so odd from countries so closely connected we forget how different they are, such as France or the Netherlands. But encountering somebody from India who thought of hobbits as Indians, as my husband did, really shakes up the ‘Englishness’ idea. How far does an author impose ideas and how far can people adapt the text in front of them as they read? Any postmodernist critic would say yes of course that happens – but even they don’t quite seem to see how deep and strange the process can be. Fantasy of all genres should be open to wide and wild reader re-interpretations – just like medieval romance.
It is one of the deeper ironies of modern Tolkien fandom and scholarship that in a supposedly global world, we rarely hear other voices. Nor do we see creative work from outside a narrow band of ‘acceptable fantasy art’. The Dutch artist Cor Blok’s Tolkien calendars ran headlong into that problem, for one example – and that’s a European artist whose style just happened to be too unusual for many people to accept it. Diversity does not get encouraged. The work involved in doing it differently is not recognised. That could change. In fact, all of what I have written about could change.
Criticism of the ‘Is So-and-so a such-and-such?’ variety is only worthwhile in my view, if it takes into account the specifics of real lives and real books in real time, rather than the nebulous realm of ‘everybody knows’. Anything else is unfair to authors who can’t answer back. There is also often an implied ‘…so should we be reading this?’ hanging off the end of questions like that. We laugh at fuddy-duddy judges in 20th century censorship trials asking if the jury want their servants or their children reading this – and fail to see it when we get close to the same position.
If we want to understand the reality of life and of fiction in ‘the medieval era’, however we define that, we need to look back past the 20th and 19th centuries. We need to stop reading secondary sources and start reading original works, with as fresh an eye and as wide a scope as we can manage. The medieval web of story may be tattered and torn, but far, far more of it still exists than most people realise. In our own particular area, people have been much too ready to trust what Tolkien wrote to Milton Waldman about there being nothing but ‘chapbook stuff’ left of English medieval literature. Tolkien was not on the witness stand in court under oath there, he was trying to sell two very difficult books to a sceptical publisher. Anybody of Waldman’s age at the time who had been educated in Britain would probably have realised they were being handed the proverbial ‘pig in a poke’; we certainly need to beware of the cat in the bag. If we want to see new, different approaches in both scholarship and creative work, we mustn’t take anybody’s word for it – not even Tolkien’s.
We have a moment just now where there is a wish for change, for difference, for a wider, more diverse and more interesting world. As in all moments of change, we need to avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater. If we put in the work that is necessary, we could see genuine and beneficial change in both scholarship and creativity that draw on the medieval world. Doing things differently is not easy, but it can be very rewarding.

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The Tales after Tolkien Society welcomes contributions to the blog from members and from interested parties. Please send yours to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com, and thank you!

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.7, "The Perils of Peekablue"

Read the previous entry here!
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Lovers and friends are torn apart as the Horde's machinations continue.

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5.7, "The Perils of Peekablue"

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

Synopsis

The very picture of focus, Adora.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora and company continue their progress towards Etheria. Adora attempts to bring She-Ra under further conscious control, but she is hindered by distractions. The group takes stock of its situation and begins to plan for action back on Etheria.

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

On the planet, Mermista, Perfuma, Scorpia, and Sea Hawk prepare to seek allies in high style. The ally, Prince Peekablue, favors an elite, clandestine meeting spot, one requiring cover that Mermista tries to provide. They are, however, observed by a Horde-suborned agent: Spinnerella. She proceeds to try to suborn Netossa, who rebuffs the attempt.

Mermista's group arrives at the soiree and successfully enters it. Unfortunately, many past entanglements arise that inhibit any ability to find their target. Perfuma's overacting and Scorpia's awkward timidity also interfere, and the two confer. Perfuma gives Scorpia a pep-talk, which seems to help her.

Target acquired.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

They are interrupted by the emergence of Peekablue and the resulting cheers. Entertainment ensues. Scorpia tails Peekablue as it does. Her efforts end up finding her spotlighted on stage; after an awkward start, she adjusts admirably.

Netossa frets about Spinnerella and observes her as under Horde control.

After her performance, Scorpia confronts Peekablue. In the event, however, the Peekablue present is, instead, Double Trouble, who proves as vulnerable to Scorpia's sting as any other. They had taken up the role as a means of support, and they report what they know about Horde activities--and that a trap awaits Adora.

Melee ensues as Netossa confronts Spinnerella and Mermista, suborned, confronts her companions. Few of the remaining members of the resistance to the Horde escape, despite their best and most valiant efforts and the self-sacrifice of several of their number. And word of it reaches Adora's group, to their horror.

Discussion

As something of an aside: it is notable that the suborned princesses and Micah show themselves as remarkably, devastatingly powerful while under Horde Prime's control. It may be an artifact of that control, to be sure, but it may also be an indication that, when they are "themselves," they are playing nice. It's not an uncommon thing, really, but it is always of interest to see it.

The aside brings up a point. One of the tropes most commonly associated with the medieval is the notion of chivalry, and chivalric codes call for the exercise of restraint in combat. Malory offers examples, of course. Gawain is rebuked by Gareth for his improper pursuit of vengeance for his hounds, and he suffers greatly for his continued wrath against Lancelot (though the latter is far more justifiable; the deaths of brothers should elicit more anger than most other things). The Pentecostal Oath of the Round Table Knights explicitly obliges mercy be given to those who ask it, and the "evil" knights whom the Round Table often faces are "evil" precisely because they eschew mercy--that is, they fight fully and without reserve.

Too, I've argued that the fighting practices tacitly advocated by Malory often tend away from the "more realistic" efforts to kill or incapacitate an opponent, even if no few of the protagonists' foes end up dying, anyway. It is rare that such figures as Lancelot exercise their full power; when they do, it is particularly marked, as in Arthur's fighting the giant at Mont. St. Micheal or Lancelot facing Meliagraunce. It does not seem so discordant, then, that the protagonists of the present series would act in such a way, given how many other ways they follow a pastiche of medieval forebears.

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

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

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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.

An Update for #Kzoo2021--Hopefully Not Tentative

𝔄s a follow-up to"Getting Started for #Kzoo2021," the Society is happy to report that both of its sessions for the (hopefully) upcoming ICMS have been approved. As a reminder, submissions for either or both need to come to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com on or before 15 September 2020; please include a brief abstract and your PIF. Proposals from graduate students, those outside traditional academe, and traditionally underrepresented groups are still especially welcome, and please let people in your circles know who might be interested!

As a reminder, the panels are these:

Legacies of Tolkien's Whiteness in Contemporary Medievalisms

A roundtable session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress) examining the continuing effects of Tolkien's depictions of race in medievalist works.

Much criticism directs itself towards racial studies and postcolonial readings of the works of JRR Tolkien, arguing whether his works should be regarded as racist and what attitudes contemporary readers would be well served to adopt in response to them. Much attention in popular media has directed itself towards the use of medieval and medievalist works such as Tolkien's by white supremacist groups to offer themselves pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-historical support for their execrable agendas. The session looks for ways in which contemporary medievalist work (hopefully) unintentionally supports such efforts and what can be done to oppose them as things deserving all opposition.

Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption

A paper session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress) examining depictions of what comes in the wake of war and death in works in the Tolkienian tradition.

Many of the "standard" fantasy works, ranging from the epics through Arthuriana into Tolkien and beyond, make much of grand wars fought on massive scales. They also, at times, look at what is left behind when the war is done, the graveyards filled and memorials erected. The session looks at how such things are constructed in works in the Tolkienian fantasy tradition and what functions they serve for readers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

We hope to see you at the 'zoo!

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.5, "Save the Cat"

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She-Ra comes back in full force at last.

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5.5, "Save the Cat"

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

Synopsis

This does not seem a good idea.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Entrapta proceed towards Horde Prime's flagship, intending to rescue Catra. They are pulled into the ship, with Adora surrendering to the clones and being taken to Horde Prime. The others infiltrate the ship, searching for Catra and for a means to assail Prime.

As Adora confronts Prime in his throne room, Glimmer navigates the ship with difficulty. Bow and Entrapta encounter opposition. Prime reveals himself as a body-hopper, and one who has faced and defeated Adora's kind previously. Entrapta believes she recognizes Hordak among the clones and tries to retrieve him; the clone attacks, Bow defends, and the clone finds himself bereft of connection to the Horde. Bow and Entrapta suborn him, labeling him "Wrong Hordak."

Back at the scene of the crime.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Glimmer returns to the cell where she had been held, finding Catra absent and her group's communications jammed as Horde Prime boasts to Adora. He returns Catra to Adora, having turned her to his own purposes.

Bow, Entrapta, and Wrong Hordak arrive at a sensitive location as Adora understands what has been done to Catra; she is controlled via an implant on the back of her neck. Prime unleashes his forces on Adora's party and leaves Catra to assail Adora. Multiple melees ensue; Glimmer's and Bow's are more successful than Adora's, and they are able to damage Prime's command and control structures.

Reminiscent of the Pieta, this.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The damage loosens Prime's control of Catra, but only just, and she and Adora end up injured. When Prime confronts Adora again, she manifests the full power of She-Ra, seeming more like Mara than her previous self as she effects escape from the Horde, joining the others in the progress of their own exit. And Hordak, after, begins to reassert himself.

Discussion

The Arthurian pastiche in which the series operates already admits of much of the messianic. The present episode does much to reinforce that aspect of the Arthurian, with much being made of rescuing prisoners from bondage (about which Malory and other Arthurian writers make much) and of the sword-wielding hero(ine) returning in the hour of need. In that, then, it adds to already-existing medievalism in the series rather than adding new medievalisms to it--and this despite the imprecations of some commentary that asserts medievalism and those who study it are somehow unreal.

The present episode also accentuates the homosocial, even homoerotic, motions that appear in much Arthurian work. When I had students, and when I had them in classes that allowed for me to bring in Arthurian literature, they were often surprised by the amount of kissing going on between men in the works, as well as the open emoting that occurs throughout. Part of that is different social conditioning and expectation, of course; many prevailing ideas of masculinity call for a partial and inauthentic stoicism, and knights are "supposed" to be exemplars of masculinity. It's the kind of thing that Shiloh Carroll speaks to in her excellent write-up of Game of Thrones, and it may be the kind of thing to which the current series and its present episode respond. Certainly, there is enough tenderness among Adora's group--despite the fighting that has happened among them--to be marked, a juxtaposition that also echoes the Arthurian of which the series appears to make so much use.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.4, "Stranded"

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Hope is rekindled along with purpose as the final season of the series persists.

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5.4, "Stranded"

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

Synopsis

Note the placement.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Entrapta proceed through space. They assess their situation, with tension emerging from Bow. Glimmer makes to ask forgiveness for her earlier misbehavior, but problems with the ship intervene. She apologizes to Adora amid the problems, but the ship's suffering a fuel problem prevents more. The group proceeds towards a noted fuel source.

On Etheria, the remaining resistance forces make camp, Scorpia offering encouragement. She confers with Swift Wind as he tries to make contact with the absent Adora. He bemoans his inability to do so, and she comforts him.

Pretty. Also, Arthurian reference?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

On the planet identified as the fuel source, Adora's party finds a wasteland that the Horde had already visited; the fate of Etheria is forecast, and blame for it laid at Glimmer's feet. Sign of the fuel emerges, and Adora, Glimmer, and Bow investigate while Entrapta effects repairs. Bow remains taciturn, and Adora is of little help. A sudden fissure separates the party, sending Adora underground into crystalline caverns. She proceeds into the caves.

On Etheria, Swift Wind continues his vigil. He tries to talk to her, giving a convenient overview of the resistance's progress against the greater Horde. The lack of reply disheartens him.

As Adora explores, she finds signs of others before coming under attack. A brief melee ensues, and Glimmer and Bow reach Adora amid an ongoing resolution among Adora and her erstwhile opponents, the Star Siblings. They share the situation of being in need of fuel--and the fuel is difficult to access. Adora tries to recruit them, but they resist joining her against the Horde. Entrapta joins with a warning of impending seismic activity, and the combined group proceeds to retrieve the fuel.

It's a pretty clear sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The seismic activity intensifies, imperiling the retrieval efforts. Glimmer makes the retrieval while the rest secure their path of egress. As they do, Adora begins to manifest the power of She-Ra once again, and the group is able to escape with the fuel before the caverns collapse. Adora's exertions give the Star Siblings hope, and they agree to join the rebellion against the Horde.

As Adora, Glimmer, and Bow make to retrieve Catra, Glimmer apologizes to Bow; he accepts it, and the trio is at ease once again. And Swift Wind, on Etheria, feels the return of She-Ra.

Discussion

The nascent return of She-Ra fits in nicely with the long-established Arthurian pastiche, the messianic figure of the once-and-future potentate reemerging again betokening the Arthur to which Adora has long been linked. And, truly, Adora did not die, but went into another place--a much, much different one, indeed, what with flying across the cosmos.

The pastiche nature of She-Ra's Arthurian reference also again admits of her evoking Lancelot in her conduct. The return of her powers comes not at her command, not to satisfy her vanity, but in the defense of others, bringing to mind Lancelot's healing of Urre in Malory. The Round Table knight does "not do it for no presumption, but for to bear [his comrades] fellowship," and, just as he succeeds when he approaches the task humbly, Adora is able to summon the power of She-Ra almost reflexively when she is not fighting to retain her prominence but standing stable to support her friends. Nor do either of them exult in the achievement, which is something worth noting.

More of us could do with being more humble.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.3, "Corridors"

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Some hope presents itself as what seems to be Act I of the season concludes.

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5.3, "Corridors"

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

Synopsis

Again, the lime green is a bad sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

A young Catra flees through the corridors of the Fright Zone. A young Adora seeks to comfort her, only to have her lash out. The current Catra reminisces over the event as she watches the Horde bombard a planet before stalking through the corridors, monitors in tow. She tries to evade them, encountering Hordak once again. They confer briefly.

Adora, Bow, and Entrapta pilot Mara's ship towards Glimmer's location, preparing for their encounters. Bow tries to rein in Entrapta's tinkering tendencies and Adora's fractiousness--until the ship begins experiencing problems.

Seems a time-honored tradition.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Glimmer tests the limits of her confinement. Catra interrupts her, and Glimmer asks why she risks the continued contact. They begin to bond, if hesitantly, over their regrets.

Aboard Mara's ship, which Entrapta has christened Darla, repairs ensue. Problems rapidly multiply, however, defying early efforts to correct them.

Catra begins stalking the Horde-clones, two of which proceed to a long-distance teleporter. Horde Prime, through a clone, summons her to what soon reveals itself to be a ritual. He confronts her regarding the launch of Mara's ship from Etheria, and he tasks her with gathering information from Glimmer. And he demonstrates the ritual to chilling effect, so Catra does as she is commanded--ostensibly. Glimmer talks her down, however.

Aboard Darla, Bow tries to find Entrapta; she has left the ship to effect repairs. Bow has trouble processing events--and more problems emerge.

It's a hell of a catch.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Horde Prime commends Catra for her contributions. She stalks off, returning to memories of her youth with Adora in the Fright Zone. Her possessiveness of Adora is manifest again, and she once again stalks off, remembering. The weight of memory pushes her to effect Glimmer's escape from Horde Prime's ship, using the teleporter she found earlier to send Glimmer back to the newly repaired Darla. Adora and Bow rejoice in her return, and Catra faces the rebuke of the Horde via the ritual Hordak had endured.

Discussion

As noted.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

The ritual in which Hordak participates is, of course, reminiscent of Christian baptism. The Horde-clones chant rhythmically while their presiding Prime looks on, and the ritual ostensibly serves to "restore" Hordak to "the light" since it will "cast out the shadows" of Hordak's "burden" through his (partial) immersion. Along with Horde Prime's later dismissal of Catra with "Go now in peace," the Horde as refiguration of organized Christianity appears to be emphasized--and, in a series that makes much use of medieval/ist tropes, it does not come off as a particularly pleasant thing.

I have noted the relative dearth of organized religions in at least some mainstream medievalist properties, and I have to think that some of the same impetus is at work in the present episode; I have the sensation that no small part of the presumed primary audience and inferred peripheral audience has difficulties with organized religion, generally, and organized Christianity, more specifically. Certainly, the Crusades that the Horde evokes--more strongly in the present episode through the more overt reference to Christian practice--present no few problems, not least because of their continued misuse by execrable factors. So that seems to be at work.

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

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

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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.

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.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 4.13, "Destiny, Part 2"

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In the final episode of the season, matters do not seem to improve, setting up well for the fifth and final season.

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4.13, "Destiny, Part 2"

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

Synopsis

Scorpia gives great hugs.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

In Bright Moon, Adora sends Swift Wind with Bow and Entrapta to retrieve Glimmer; she heads to the Crystal Castle to confront Light Hope and stop the Heart of Etheria. Meanwhile, Glimmer and Scorpia stalk through the Fright Zone, encountering Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle; the three allow Glimmer and Scorpia to pass, noting their own dissatisfaction with affairs in the Horde.

Hordak attempts to kill Catra for her betrayal. She flees until she can find a position from which to counterattack; she does so successfully, leaving him disabled and trapped.

Glimmer and Scorpia reach the Black Garnet, and Scorpia connects with the gem, summoning and displaying power. As she does so, the Heart of Etheria begins to come online, with all of the princesses suddenly swelling with might and Light Hope preparing to discharge the weapon.

Double Trouble confronts Catra, revealing their betrayal, in turn; knowing of the superweapon, Double Trouble throws in with the princesses. The confrontation leaves Catra shaken, badly, as Scorpia and Glimmer proceed through the Fright Zone in power. Scorpia pleads with Glimmer to spare Catra, and Glimmer agrees.

It does not look easy, no.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Adora reaches Light Hope, and the Heart of Etheria powers up. The hologram reveals that she, not Hordak, pulled Adora to Etheria. Adora resists the activation, albeit with substantial difficulty.

Glimmer arrives where Catra and Hordak linger, defeated. She is there when the Heart of Etheria begins draining power from her and the princesses in preparation for firing; the princesses are caught out in the field, and their power channels itself to Adora, who continues to resist. Light Hope transports Etheria back into normal space.

It is a decisive statement.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Glimmer tries unsuccessfully to thwart the Heart. Adora continues to try to convince Light Hope not to fire the weapon, and, in the end, she shatters the sword of She-Ra to prevent the Heart of Etheria firing.

Adora wakes to find the sword destroyed and Light Hope flickering out of existence with words of thanks. The Crystal Castle is darkened.

Such a smile...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Bow tries to reach Glimmer, only to see her and Hordak taken by Horde Prime, whose ships fill Etheria's skies. Glimmer wakes on Horde Prime's ship, where he rebukes Hordak and takes Glimmer captive--at Catra's sudden emergence and suggestion--in advance of taking Etheria as a weapon for his own.

Discussion

If the episode is to be regarded as continuing the Arthurian pastiche that is legible in so much of the series, then I have to wonder if the arrival of Horde Prime and the incipient invasion of Etheria do not partake of either the attempt by Rome to reassert dominance over Britain (as in Malory, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and elsewhere) or the invasion by Hengist and Horsa at the behest of Vortigern--or both, given the pastiche. Certainly there is some of the Saxon-story in the present episode, with Horde Prime having arrived at Etheria at the summons of Hordak, not unlike Vortigern inviting Hengist and Horsa to aid him in subduing the "less advanced" Picts and Scots; too, Horde Prime betrays Hordak, not unlike the manner in which Hengist and Horsa turn on Vortigern. But there is also somewhat of the Roman assertion in the manner in which Horde Prime regards Glimmer; even before Catra's emergence and intercession, he regards Glimmer as a (lesser) royal, while he afterward asserts a claim of overlordship of Etheria--not denying Glimmer's rule, but placing his above it.

As with many things, there are other available antecedents. But it is clear that the medieval Arthurian antecedents are in place, and they do resonate with the long- and earlier-established invocations and refigurings of Arthurian legend that pervade the series. And it may well be the case that a similar end comes, with the Arthurian figures achieving victory over the outside forces that plague them--though it must also be remembered that few of the most notable at the Round Table survive the end of that fellowship...