I know everyone is really excited about watching Avatar (so am I!!) but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about She-Ra for DAYS so here’s an unsolicited rant.

I started watching it because I followed @Gingerhazing on tumblr like??? Years ago??? And I like her art, and I like cartoons now and then. So sure. I got so sucked in so fast.

A lot of what I loved about it was the art—so much life and color and joy! But it also took ten seconds for these characters to slide on into my heart.

And you know what? I got so much. I got to think about what kind of power I have, what kind of support I want to be, what it means to be strong and vulnerable and where they intersect.

Really importantly, this show is about its relationships, for me. At a time when I was hurting, (the 4th season of) this show helped remind me how powerful a friendship can be, as well as how much hard work.

I was given a reminder by this show, that a strong friendship often is not easy, and always takes work and effort and love and communication from both sides. It came at a moment when I desperately needed it, and the shifting relationships within She-Ra’s main cast of characters

has stayed with me as a reminder to seek out and build friendships with the same kind of love, effort, and communication. It’s been important to me.

And that was just from the first seasons! I’m really here to talk about the ending!

Like pretty much everyone else, I’d thought that I saw the motions of a love story woven in this show. I simply refused to believe it, because how often do I pick up on something like that only to be let down? Constantly.

So I honestly refused to believe (SHIT IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT THIS IS WHERE I WILL SPOIL IT) Adora and Catra would end up together. I myself got spoiled! I saw a screen cap of their kiss and thought it was fan art!

I sobbed through the last 20 minutes of the show. I didn’t think that relationship mattered so much to me, but you know what? It mattered to feel seen and acknowledged and celebrated.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a show or film with leading queer women whose story did not feature sex as a major element. So She-Ra drove this home: this sort of relationship is simple, normal, good. As well-suited for children’s stories and fairytales as any old love story.

It’s a profound feeling, to have assumed I would have to see that love only in subtext, and to instead discover that this time, the kind of love story I dream about wouldn’t be hidden under a rug. Under subtext. Under the word “friend”

(I have a rant here about how important close and strong friendships are, and how much I hate the immediate assumption that, for instance, as a queer woman I am constantly falling in love with whichever woman I call my best friend but this thread is so long already)

Anyway. If you are a person who would enjoy a good cartoon. I loved this one. It’s on Netflix. Go, and let it bring you joy.

Sorry this ended up being way longer than I meant it to, if anyone read all of this I owe you a drink.