Episode 15 – Ties That Bind

In which Adora and Swift Wind reach an understanding.

Adora is continuing to train, and improving all the time – so much so that Light Hope judges it is the right moment to introduce Swift Wind into the mix. Adora, however, seems oddly disinclined to associate with Swift Wind – perhaps because he’s utterly mental – and tries to resist Light Hope’s efforts to get her to work with him. Unfortunately for her, Light Hope starts to go on the glitch, necessitating Adora and Swift Wind to travel together to a location called the Watch Tower to repair damage wrought by Mara – the previous She-Ra – to Light Hope’s programme.

Heading out on their quest, Adora and Swift Wind discover that the Watch Tower has been almost entirely destroyed, leaving only large stone fragments floating mysteriously in the sky. It’s only by working together that they’re able to reassemble the Tower, which they do by forming some kind of sacred bond and triggering some mumbo-jumbo which I couldn’t really get invested in.

Adora: “You may be a mental horse, but you’re MY mental horse.”

Meanwhile, back at Bright Moon, the news arrives that the Horde have taken Drill – Entrapta’s home, last seen in System Failure – which, coupled with Bow’s recent discovery that Entrapta is still alive, is considered a serious setback. Consequently, Glimmer and Bow set off to Drill, under the misapprehension that Entrapta needs rescuing.

Because Glimmer and Bow in this series are magnificently competent compared to their Filmation predecessors, their mission doesn’t go immediately wrong, and they even manage to capture Catra. Sadly, however, things go downhill from this point: as they march her back to Bright Moon, Catra winds them up a right treat until she’s eventually rescued by Scorpia, Lonnie and the lizard guy. To top off this less than perfect day, Bow and Glimmer then receive a Skype call from Entrapta who reveals that she’s quite happy working for the Horde. Oh well, at least everyone’s finally on the same page.

In today’s adventure…

Bow is at pains to point out today that good guys don’t beat up their prisoners. He’s so insistent on this that it feels like maybe it’s a case of the lady doth protest too much, methinks. I bet that after the credits roll, he’s down in Bright Moon’s dungeons violating the Geneva Convention left, right and centre. Still, the message is that you should be nice to people.

Bow: “It’s fine, we got a clean bill of health from Amnesty.”

Character checklist

This little trip to Etheria is peopled by Adora, She-Ra, Swift Wind, Glimmer, Bow, Light Hope, the kitchen staff from System Failure, Catra, Scorpia, Entrapta, Kyle, Lonnie, the lizard guy, and of course the inevitable Horde Troopers, though not very many of them, for once. There’s a brief cameo for Shadow Weaver too.

Insults

There’s a quick little slanging match between Glimmer and Catra: Glimmer kicks off by calling Catra “Horde scum”, and Catra retaliates with the rather less effective “Sparkles”.

Bow: “Don’t worry, Glimmer, I’ve been called much worse in my time.”

Does it have the Power?

There are two completely separate storylines going on here, and neither one of them is particularly compelling. The Bow/Glimmer/Catra entry is really only a vehicle to inform our characters of the current state of play with Entrapta, and it feels pretty workmanlike and leaden. The Adora/Swift Wind business had the potential to be more interesting, but it doesn’t quite work for me: I don’t know why Adora is initially so reluctant to work with Swift Wind, so it doesn’t quite ring true when they do eventually form their sacred bond and fix the Watch Tower, especially since this has a distinct air of magical deus ex machina. Notwithstanding a fantastic visual comedy moment with Swift Wind reimagining Glimmer, Bow, Catra and Shadow Weaver as unicorns, I’d have to say this episode is pretty inessential and could be safely skipped.

Episode 14 – The Frozen Forest

In which Glimmer learns that it’s worth pretending to be nice to get what you want.

It’s business as usual in Whispering Woods, with the rebels all beating up Horde robots while Adora continues training in the Crystal Castle with Light Hope. This training has been underway for a month, and Adora is growing despondent: her performance hasn’t improved, and she’s concerned that she’ll either never be able to beat Catra, or will repeat the mistakes made by the previous She-Ra.

While Adora’s obsessing over her lack of progress, the other rebels are growing increasingly irritated with Frosta, who’s morphed from being entirely uninterested in participating in the rebellion to being ridiculously overinvested. She’s particularly getting on Glimmer’s nerves, having apparently decided that Glimmer is her new best friend.

Frosta: “Okay, I can kind of see how I might be a bit annoying.”

Over in the Fright Zone, Catra, Entrapta and Scorpia watch a video of the rebels defeating the Horde robots, concluding that the robots could do with improvement. Catra suggests simply sending more and more droids to keep the rebels busy while the Horde conquers the planet, but Entrapta is a little more devious: she designs and builds a more powerful droid which she claims has enough power to rival a princess. This might be bad news if the princess in question is She-Ra, but less so if it’s the ever-useless Perfuma.

At the first meeting of the rebels’ council, Bow notes that the Horde are continuing to send masses of robots against the Whispering Woods, and suggests that it might be a good idea to capture a robot and try to reverse-engineer it to identify a weakness that might let the rebels deactivate all the droids in one go. Queen Angela is happy with the idea, and assigns Adora, Bow, Glimmer, Mermista, Perfuma and Swift Wind to carry it out.

Queen Angela: “Yes, yes, you can go and capture some bots. Anything to get you out of the Palace.”

Naturally, of course, our heroes come up against Entrapta’s new and improved bots, and are utterly trounced by them in a battle. Luckily, the bots aren’t on the offensive: their mission is to head to the beacon and retrieve more First Ones technology, and they aren’t programmed to waste time smashing the rebels into strawberry jam. Even so, She-Ra doesn’t really want them stealing more technology, so she sets out to prevent them.

The only problem is, of course, that She-Ra and co have already learned they’re no match for the new bots, so they’re forced to ask Frosta for help, which is awkward as they’ve spent the last 20 minutes or so telling her to piss off. Fortunately, Frosta doesn’t hold grudges, and with her assistance, they manage to capture one of the bots. The final scene has Bow beginning to dismantle it, at which point he recognises the craftsmanship and realises that Entrapta must be alive.

Bow: “Ground Control to Major Tom…”

In today’s adventure…

Glimmer learns the hard way that she shouldn’t tell people to get lost before she’s fully assessed how much they’re worth to her. Genuinely, she only makes friends with Frosta because she needs to. I think we’re supposed to see this as recognising that everybody has something to contribute, but it just comes across as Glimmer being something of a sociopath.

Character checklist

Pretty much everyone’s here this week: Adora, She-Ra, Glimmer, Bow, Frosta, Perfuma, Mermista, Swift Wind, Light Hope, Queen Angela, Castaspella, Spinnerella, Netossa, Catra, Entrapta, Scorpia, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Kyle, Lonnie, the green lizard Horde cadet, and not forgetting the Horde Troopers, of course.

Spinnerella: “You okay there, Swift Wind? You’re looking a little psychotic.”

Insults

Fairly mundane for the most part: Perfuma calls a Horde droid a “robot-face”, and Frosta’s effort is along the same lines, offering “bot-face” to one of Entrapta’s improved robot models. Shadow Weaver elevates the material a bit, calling Catra a “lazy worthless creature”.

Oh No, Bow!

While it’s admirable that Bow is willing to welcome Frosta into the Best Friend Squad, it should probably be noted that he’s seemingly entirely tone deaf to Glimmer’s irritation with her. The word ‘tactless’ springs to mind, as it does so often when discussing Bow.

Does it have the Power?

This episode could probably best be described as a holding pattern: we’re reintroduced to the series concept and all the characters in a pretty simple story that eases us back into the She-Ra world after the season break. The storyline doesn’t advance much; Entrapta’s new bots seeking First Ones tech seemed like a distraction rather than a likely ongoing plot thread – though I could be wrong – and I suspect that Frosta’s integration into the group is now complete. I hope so anyway, because she’s my least favourite of the princesses by some distance, being rather shrill and irritating, so I’d rather not spend any more time on her. That means the only real development is Bow’s discovery that Entrapta didn’t die in No Princess Left Behind after all, and it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how the rebels react to the fact that Entrapta has now joined the Horde.

All in all, I think we’ll say that this is a pleasant enough but certainly not essential instalment, which is much as you might expect for being the first in the second season. Hopefully plot wheels will begin spinning again soon and the series will be back to the high points of last season soon.