Netflix's She-ra revival

[Sithborg]

52 is a good episode order.

 

[jmc]

Got it. No fatties.


Jesus ****ing Christ.

None of the characters on the show are obese or somehow incredibly out of shape and let's be serious here, most of them use magical super powers. Jean Grey does not actually have to look like she has since the Jim Lee era, like some plastic surgery enhanced porn star to actually do her job as a super heroine cuz she moves **** with her mind.

People seem to willfully misinterpret what is actually meant by body positivity because it's not saying "just be fat and unhealthy ". The fact is even giving as much effort as one can most people just are never going to be able to achieve a super hero/movie star body no matter how many weight loss selfies get posted online. In my 20's I used to train 5-6 hours every day AND assistant teach a martial arts class about four times a week. Despite all that effort I never got a Brad Pitt body. I was able to fly out to California and compete in martial arts real contact stick fighting matches (think a UFC match where punching, kicking and grappling are all a go AND your both armed with a sword length stick) despite not necessarily looking like an illustrator's idealized human body.

Maybe it's just me but I don't see the issue with a message that says that one shouldn't measure ones self worth based on not looking like a super model, especially for young girls.


I will also add that it's not at all like any of the girls on the show are in fact "fat" or obese. Glimmer is at best a bit chunky and even then there are human beings that are in real life just built that way and starving themselves and working out won't actually turn those girls in Angelina Jolie's in her prime no matter what. We all should be as healthy as we can be and eat right. We all should not use food to drown our sorrows in. Thing is the idea of body positivity isn't that you should just let yourself go. It's saying you have worth beyond your aesthetic and indeed sexual appeal. I think frankly it says a lot more about someone if they make huge blanket judgements about a person because they are not some zero percent body fat super model as compared to someone who despite not being the idealized super hero form made flesh still knows their own self worth.


And before the usual obtuse types show up... No that doesn't mean ****ing Roseanne Barr should play Wonder Woman you pretentious gits. That argument isn't even close to what the issue is here so please, save the edgelord act for 4chan.

You're misrepresenting what I wrote. No-ones saying 'no fatties', what is being being said that heroism in its idealised form are people who are physically in shape and have masculine and feminine characteristics and that people will always gravitate towards those representations, even kids, and we should be honest about that. No amount of promoting all shapes and sizes will change our admiration for heroic figures. There's a reason why we're attracted to those type of characters, it's because they are the peak of human endurance, the best of who we are, it's the same reason why athletes are always admired. Whilst I agree with you that no-one should measure ones self worth just by how they look, the reality is life is challenge and sometimes you have to better yourself to get what you want, otherwise it turns into people blaming others for their failure. Why do you think those women hating incel types exist? It's because they never bothered to grow a pair and make the necessary changes they need to improve themselves and their chances with women. The reason the heroic idealistic characters exists in the first place is to inspire, that's why Superman has been popular for nearly 80 years. Of course, not everyone can be a supermodel or a hunky sport star, of course they are unrealistic expectations, but that's entirely the point, if you don't try you won't improve. There's nothing better for ones self esteem than to be the best version of yourself. You can try and make a character like Glimmer a hero all you want by showing someone who's comfortable with who they are, the reality is most people aren't going to take notice of that. Again, idealised is not the same as sexualised.

 

[Primal Slayer]

People are only attracted to that representation because it is the only representation we've had. There are plenty of people who will become fans of these characters because they are able to relate to them.

 

[Sithborg]

I fail to see how portraying different bodyshapes (not obese) as being able to be heroes is a bad thing. Especially when each have different sets of magical talents they bring to the table.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I too agree that it is a big issue that they have lowered the shagability of this kid's cartoon character.

 

[TheVileOne]

How old is She-Ra even in this cartoon? 13-14? Probably for the best she doesn't look like Britney Spears.

 

[jmc]

People are only attracted to that representation because it is the only representation we've had. There are plenty of people who will become fans of these characters because they are able to relate to them.

This is false because the people who are usually most admired in the world are generally in entertainment and sports business which has been going on for literally thousands of years, and the vast majority of them are attractive and in shape. You can try and change things all you want, the reality is we like looking at and listening too aesthetically pleasing things.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

This is false because the people who are usually most admired in the world are generally in entertainment and sports business which has been going on for literally thousands of years, and the vast majority of them are attractive and in shape. You can try and change things all you want, the reality is we like looking at and listening too aesthetically pleasing things.

This is an outright falsehood when it comes to men. It is one of the oldest and most used tropes on television. The conventionally unattractive male, and the conventionally attractive woman. It's almost like this giant double standard...

 

[Sithborg]

How old is She-Ra even in this cartoon? 13-14? Probably for the best she doesn't look like Britney Spears.

Creators have said 17-18. About the time you first leave home. I think most people have flawed memories of what teenagers look like, thanks to 20 somethings dominating that range in television.

This is an outright falsehood when it comes to men. It is one of the oldest and most used tropes on television. The conventionally unattractive male, and the conventionally attractive woman. It's almost like this giant double standard...

Apparently a show is coming out, I forget where, where a woman comes to the realization that she is the supporting character in her husband's sitcom. I really want to check it out.

 

[TheVileOne]

Creators have said 17-18. About the time you first leave home. I think most people have flawed memories of what teenagers look like, thanks to 20 somethings dominating that range in television.

Their designs make them seem young, almost like the age of the kids on the original Avatar show.

But whatever, fans seem to be liking the show.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

This is false because the people who are usually most admired in the world are generally in entertainment and sports business which has been going on for literally thousands of years, and the vast majority of them are attractive and in shape. You can try and change things all you want, the reality is we like looking at and listening too aesthetically pleasing things.

Aesthetically pleasing has a good amount of subjectivity to it. Standards of beauty and attractiveness are always in flux throughout all cultures and have done so... For literally thousands of years. You're an artist. You've studied art. This cannot be something you've not been exposed to.

 

[TheVileOne]

I do think Hordak and Shadow Weaver look really cool on this show. IMHO they have the best designs on the show.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

You're misrepresenting what I wrote. No-ones saying 'no fatties', what is being being said that heroism in its idealised form are people who are physically in shape and have masculine and feminine characteristics and that people will always gravitate towards those representations, even kids, and we should be honest about that. No amount of promoting all shapes and sizes will change our admiration for heroic figures. There's a reason why we're attracted to those type of characters, it's because they are the peak of human endurance, the best of who we are, it's the same reason why athletes are always admired. Whilst I agree with you that no-one should measure ones self worth just by how they look, the reality is life is challenge and sometimes you have to better yourself to get what you want, otherwise it turns into people blaming others for their failure. Why do you think those women hating incel types exist? It's because they never bothered to grow a pair and make the necessary changes they need to improve themselves and their chances with women. The reason the heroic idealistic characters exists in the first place is to inspire, that's why Superman has been popular for nearly 80 years. Of course, not everyone can be a supermodel or a hunky sport star, of course they are unrealistic expectations, but that's entirely the point, if you don't try you won't improve. There's nothing better for ones self esteem than to be the best version of yourself. You can try and make a character like Glimmer a hero all you want by showing someone who's comfortable with who they are, the reality is most people aren't going to take notice of that. Again, idealised is not the same as sexualised.

Some of the most beloved and heroic characters on television.

Amazingly they have somehow been accepted by so many, including children, without looking like Conan and Wonder Woman. I don't know how they did it.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

You're misrepresenting what I wrote. No-ones saying 'no fatties', what is being being said that heroism in its idealised form are people who are physically in shape and have masculine and feminine characteristics and that people will always gravitate towards those representations, even kids, and we should be honest about that. No amount of promoting all shapes and sizes will change our admiration for heroic figures. There's a reason why we're attracted to those type of characters, it's because they are the peak of human endurance, the best of who we are, it's the same reason why athletes are always admired. Whilst I agree with you that no-one should measure ones self worth just by how they look, the reality is life is challenge and sometimes you have to better yourself to get what you want, otherwise it turns into people blaming others for their failure. Why do you think those women hating incel types exist? It's because they never bothered to grow a pair and make the necessary changes they need to improve themselves and their chances with women. The reason the heroic idealistic characters exists in the first place is to inspire, that's why Superman has been popular for nearly 80 years. Of course, not everyone can be a supermodel or a hunky sport star, of course they are unrealistic expectations, but that's entirely the point, if you don't try you won't improve. There's nothing better for ones self esteem than to be the best version of yourself. You can try and make a character like Glimmer a hero all you want by showing someone who's comfortable with who they are, the reality is most people aren't going to take notice of that. Again, idealised is not the same as sexualised.

You are ALL over the map her jmc.

No-ones saying 'no fatties', what is being being said that heroism in its idealised form are people who are physically in shape and have masculine and feminine characteristics and that people will always gravitate towards those representations, even kids, and we should be honest about that.

There are lots of tendencies in humankind and, yeah, there are often understandable reasons we have said tendencies. But we as a civilization have gotten to a point where we can now question of lot of these tendencies. In fact, we've been going that way for a few centuries now, far beyond the era of the classical Greeks who sort of cemented the conception of the idealized body for the West, which, sure, no doubt the Greeks themselves probably just delineated long held views which are a natural outgrowth of a certain amount of the realities of evolutionary biology... Which does include sex and sexual attraction I might add.

The thing is, idealization in art isn't all sunshine and rainbows and aesthetic ideals have had some dark affects on people and cultures over the years. But more importantly to what I bolded in the quote above... Well, really now in fiction no less than in real life I can probably point to a lot of examples of people who did great deeds, accomplished much and stand as exemplars of great personal morals and of ethical leadership who, frankly, weren't exactly Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I would also add that while you are correct that people will naturally gravitate towards what they consider beautiful (though again... I think the range of aesthetically pleasing or sexually attractive is far WIDER than you or most actually conceive) there's something to be said that.. We aren't actually both currently or historically in a drought of "beautiful people doing heroic things in fiction". I mean... For real, is there some glut of films showing characters that look like Gabriel Iglesias and Rebel Wilson destroying all evil and being held up and the examples we all need to follow? Are a handful of outlier shows like this one some kind of... Threat to the "natural order" of things in some way?

I mean, even on the show we are discussing in this thread... Which of the characters actually fit the negative message you think it's sending? Our main hero She-Ra/Adora, and her immediate antagonist so far Catra, both are still presented as athletic in build. As are quite a few others. So after Glimmer, who isn't even close to being in design "overweight/fat", who else is not reflecting some "important ideal" that should not be subverted, challenged or deconstructed in anyway according to your view?

I'm also just going to come out and say it... The ideal I suspect you have in your head is one that excludes a familiarity with the aesthetic appreciation of body types outside of the Caucasian parameters of beauty of the last 50 years or so especially as promoted by the American entertainment industry. So very many women of African descent along with Hispanics/Latinas as well as women whose heritage is of the nations around the Mediterranean can just naturally be... Thick. And yes, as I'm sure @Black Narcissus could tell you there is a difference between thick and unhealthily fat.

(And this is true for many a white girl/woman as well. Look at the blond under the UCLA HEALTH sign by the way... That girl is THICK and she's also obviously a member of the squad. Those thighs look formidable and I'm not being facetious here.)

Big butts. Thick thighs. So many of them are just never going to be the Olsen twins in weight or volume no matter how hard they may try or want to be. And when they were younger I assure you, lots look way more like Glimmer than they looked like say, the way the girls on the Teen Titans show were designed.

Why do you think those women hating incel types exist? It's because they never bothered to grow a pair and make the necessary changes they need to improve themselves and their chances with women.

Again, idealised is not the same as sexualised.

I'll repeat... I think you are all over the map. Aren't you saying that these "incels" need to strive towards the ideal in order to attract a woman? Because it's clear that the idealized form IS a sexual form to one degree or another. And it's certainly been presented that way in entertainment. You yourself said that people are just naturally attracted to this ideal... Did you think this attraction was literally Platonic in nature, divorced from baser drives?


You know what though? Even in the baser drives there's a wider variety of what is truly attractive than just what the modern Hollywood machine says is acceptable. The fact that the genes for "all shapes and sizes" are seen each and every day that you walk down the street tells you that... Ya'know... The act of passing on said genes is happening regularly. Some guys, somewhere are liking women that aren't all 5'10 Amazons that have full pouty lips, long necks, thin dainty noses, 34 C-Cup breast with close to 3 percent body fat. I'd rather NOT go to much into it but... the economic viability of pornographic movies says all we need to know about attraction. Sure, there are plenty of female performers in that business that hew to your idealized standard... But there are also a lot that vary and are indeed lusted after precisely because of the physical aspects that make them different from that ideal.

The reason the heroic idealistic characters exists in the first place is to inspire, that's why Superman has been popular for nearly 80 years. Of course, not everyone can be a supermodel or a hunky sport star, of course they are unrealistic expectations, but that's entirely the point, if you don't try you won't improve.

Given all the hubub around here for the last five years I assumed that Superman was inspirational because of his character and ethics and moral fortitude, not because of his abs. (I'll get to breaking down the flaws with invoking these super powered characters in the first place when talking about some connection between aesthetics and real world physical competency next post.)

In regards to the bolded above... Which character with a non-idealized body type on the show just doesn't try and gives up? Is your contention that such a message is inherent by the mere existence of a character like Glimmer or others? In fact... Isn't such a use of said character the opposite of that? Glimmer despite not being your ideal in terms of body shape (And again... still not anything like some kind of unhealthy obese "role model") actually does try all the time. She's far from shown as being some kind of wishful slacker. She's shown to be aggressive in leading the charge against the bad guys all throughout the season. She's not content with the status quo. She's unsure of herself in some aspects but more often than not she takes risks and charges hard taking chances all the time. So in other words, by example through her actions she's the exact opposite of what you claim.

You can try and make a character like Glimmer a hero all you want by showing someone who's comfortable with who they are, the reality is most people aren't going to take notice of that.

This last part... I'm sorry but this comes across as though every piece of wisdom about not judging books by their covers, about how the true threat of the iceberg is what's under the surface, about how first impressions can be deceiving, about... Well again A LOT of stories are all about how short sighted what you just stated was. Which is surprising because from Clark Kent, to Peter Parker and indeed to the lore of the classic She-Ra and He-Man shows, a huge aspect is that despite outward appearances there can be much more to an individual than what is readily apparent from merely seeing them visually.

In the end, I'm sorry jmc but what you stated originally and what you seem to be doubling down on really does boil down to: "No fatties". Or at least... No fatties in my fantasy fiction.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

If we are going to be real. The vast majority of world class athletes do not look like the "ideal" jmc is talking about. Depending on the sports, the builds varying wildly for numerous reasons. Tom Brady doesn't look like LeBron James, who doesn't look like Lionel Messi who doesn't like like Daniel Cormier. When it comes to female athletes, a lot of them are thicker, as you know, the muscle. I mean with jmc's argument, Serena Williams isn't an ideal or example for others. Simone Biles isn't. That of course, is not true.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Some of the most beloved and heroic characters on television.

Amazingly they have somehow been accepted by so many, including children, without looking like Conan and Wonder Woman. I don't know how they did it.

All shapes and sizes.

The designs are a reflection of the same people who say 'anyone can do anything' without adding the sentence 'as long as you work hard at it'.

Here again @jmc you seem to be either reaching or going way into the hyperbolic zone for reasons I cannot fathom. And doing so with this franchise which is literally about characters like Adora or Adam who in fact... Don't work hard to become either She-Ra or He-Man. I know you'll try to argue it not being so in some way but you'd just be wrong. Not a little. Not in some POV way. Not in some provisional way. You'd just be wrong.

I am Adora, He-Man's twin sister and defender of the Crystal Castle. This is Spirit, my beloved steed. Fabulous secrets were revealed to me the day I held aloft my sword and said "For the honor of Greyskull!". I am She-Ra!


I am Adam, prince of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull.



This is Cringer, my fearless friend.

Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said, “By the power of Greyskull! I have the power!“

Cringer became the mighty Battle Cat, and I became He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe!



These are of course the classic intros to the shows in this franchise. According to you a terrible example is being set by this revival in that in some way the message is being sent to kids to be lazy rather than a message of "working hard".

And yet... Adora and Adam don't earn their power via physical discipline. That's not true in the classic shows and it's not true in modern times with more current takes. And it's not true for a lot of super heroes which is after all the lineage of the Masters Of The Universe franchise. It's not true for Superman who was born with his abilities. It's not true for Peter Parker, who didn't try really hard to stick to walls his whole life and one day succeeded. He was accidentally bitten by a spider. It's not true of Steve Rogers who is indeed shown to be at first a character lacking in the the dept. of, as you called them, "masculine" physical traits. But then... He's given a fantasy super steroid to become a world class Nazi puncher. It's not true of Capt. Marvel/SHAZAM, as Billy Batson just has a ****ty orphan life and the Wizard one day just imbues him with godly power.

Now none of them "earned" their powers via physical tests, correct? They didn't work for their abilities and the physiques tied into them. They are also some of the most influential characters in heroic fiction. But I doubt, despite it being an inherent aspect of all their origins that you would claim that somehow Supes, Cap, Shazam and Spidey promote a philosophical point of view inherently detrimental to moral character because of their origins where none earned their powers through physical struggle, right?

So... Why hold the characters on this show to a standard you aren't enforcing anywhere else in pop culture, not even the same standards within the same franchise actually. Glimmer shouldn't be shown to be heroic due to not being a size zero. Obviously the character sends of message antithetical to "working hard for it".

Adam and Adora though? Chuck a sword at 'em. Case closed. True heroes.

I honestly can't understand how this isn't plain and easy to see on your part?

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I do think Hordak and Shadow Weaver look really cool on this show. IMHO they have the best designs on the show.

Both are for sure improvements on the classic versions. It was actually a little disappointing we didn't see Hordak pull some major villainy this season directly. I for sure enjoyed the building of the conflict between Catra and She-Ra but It wouldn't have hurt to show us exactly how bad ass the leader of the Horde was.

 

[Sithborg]

I look forward to seeing Hordak take the field. Hopefully this isn't an Ozai situation where we have to wait to the very end.

I do love She-ra's design. The only issue with it is that you can't really appreciate her design solo. You need other characters shown in order to see how imposing she is.

 

[jmc]

Aesthetically pleasing has a good amount of subjectivity to it. Standards of beauty and attractiveness are always in flux throughout all cultures and have done so... For literally thousands of years. You're an artist. You've studied art. This cannot be something you've not been exposed to.

The traits are consistent throughout art history. Women curvy bodies, long hair, youthful looks etc, men, muscular, wide shoulders, chiseled features, etc. Of course there are variation according to taste and style, but overall there's been a consistent idea of what human idealism is, and it comes from the fact we like seeing that. Most guys like the idea of being the perfect man, and most women like the idea of being the perfect woman, even if it's entirely unachievable and impossible. Why do you think there are models on instagram who literally do nothing but take selfies of themselves and garner millions of followers? It's because when they post that image of themselves on the beautiful beach in their bikini they are showing an idealic portrait that people are drawn to. We should be honest about that for crying out loud.

 

[jmc]

You are ALL over the map her jmc.



There are lots of tendencies in humankind and, yeah, there are often understandable reasons we have said tendencies. But we as a civilization have gotten to a point where we can now question of lot of these tendencies. In fact, we've been going that way for a few centuries now, far beyond the era of the classical Greeks who sort of cemented the conception of the idealized body for the West, which, sure, no doubt the Greeks themselves probably just delineated long held views which are a natural outgrowth of a certain amount of the realities of evolutionary biology... Which does include sex and sexual attraction I might add.

The thing is, idealization in art isn't all sunshine and rainbows and aesthetic ideals have had some dark affects on people and cultures over the years. But more importantly to what I bolded in the quote above... Well, really now in fiction no less than in real life I can probably point to a lot of examples of people who did great deeds, accomplished much and stand as exemplars of great personal morals and of ethical leadership who, frankly, weren't exactly Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I would also add that while you are correct that people will naturally gravitate towards what they consider beautiful (though again... I think the range of aesthetically pleasing or sexually attractive is far WIDER than you or most actually conceive) there's something to be said that.. We aren't actually both currently or historically in a drought of "beautiful people doing heroic things in fiction". I mean... For real, is there some glut of films showing characters that look like Gabriel Iglesias and Rebel Wilson destroying all evil and being held up and the examples we all need to follow? Are a handful of outlier shows like this one some kind of... Threat to the "natural order" of things in some way?

I mean, even on the show we are discussing in this thread... Which of the characters actually fit the negative message you think it's sending? Our main hero She-Ra/Adora, and her immediate antagonist so far Catra, both are still presented as athletic in build. As are quite a few others. So after Glimmer, who isn't even close to being in design "overweight/fat", who else is not reflecting some "important ideal" that should not be subverted, challenged or deconstructed in anyway according to your view?

I'm also just going to come out and say it... The ideal I suspect you have in your head is one that excludes a familiarity with the aesthetic appreciation of body types outside of the Caucasian parameters of beauty of the last 50 years or so especially as promoted by the American entertainment industry. So very many women of African descent along with Hispanics/Latinas as well as women whose heritage is of the nations around the Mediterranean can just naturally be... Thick. And yes, as I'm sure




@Black Narcissus could tell you there is a difference between thick and unhealthily fat.

(And this is true for many a white girl/woman as well. Look at the blond under the UCLA HEALTH sign by the way... That girl is THICK and she's also obviously a member of the squad. Those thighs look formidable and I'm not being facetious here.)

Big butts. Thick thighs. So many of them are just never going to be the Olsen twins in weight or volume no matter how hard they may try or want to be. And when they were younger I assure you, lots look way more like Glimmer than they looked like say, the way the girls on the Teen Titans show were designed.

I'll repeat... I think you are all over the map. Aren't you saying that these "incels" need to strive towards the ideal in order to attract a woman? Because it's clear that the idealized form IS a sexual form to one degree or another. And it's certainly been presented that way in entertainment. You yourself said that people are just naturally attracted to this ideal... Did you think this attraction was literally Platonic in nature, divorced from baser drives?


You know what though? Even in the baser drives there's a wider variety of what is truly attractive than just what the modern Hollywood machine says is acceptable. The fact that the genes for "all shapes and sizes" are seen each and every day that you walk down the street tells you that... Ya'know... The act of passing on said genes is happening regularly. Some guys, somewhere are liking women that aren't all 5'10 Amazons that have full pouty lips, long necks, thin dainty noses, 34 C-Cup breast with close to 3 percent body fat. I'd rather NOT go to much into it but... the economic viability of pornographic movies says all we need to know about attraction. Sure, there are plenty of female performers in that business that hew to your idealized standard... But there are also a lot that vary and are indeed lusted after precisely because of the physical aspects that make them different from that ideal.



Given all the hubub around here for the last five years I assumed that Superman was inspirational because of his character and ethics and moral fortitude, not because of his abs. (I'll get to breaking down the flaws with invoking these super powered characters in the first place when talking about some connection between aesthetics and real world physical competency next post.)

In regards to the bolded above... Which character with a non-idealized body type on the show just doesn't try and gives up? Is your contention that such a message is inherent by the mere existence of a character like Glimmer or others? In fact... Isn't such a use of said character the opposite of that? Glimmer despite not being your ideal in terms of body shape (And again... still not anything like some kind of unhealthy obese "role model") actually does try all the time. She's far from shown as being some kind of wishful slacker. She's shown to be aggressive in leading the charge against the bad guys all throughout the season. She's not content with the status quo. She's unsure of herself in some aspects but more often than not she takes risks and charges hard taking chances all the time. So in other words, by example through her actions she's the exact opposite of what you claim.



This last part... I'm sorry but this comes across as though every piece of wisdom about not judging books by their covers, about how the true threat of the iceberg is what's under the surface, about how first impressions can be deceiving, about... Well again A LOT of stories are all about how short sighted what you just stated was. Which is surprising because from Clark Kent, to Peter Parker and indeed to the lore of the classic She-Ra and He-Man shows, a huge aspect is that despite outward appearances there can be much more to an individual than what is readily apparent from merely seeing them visually.

In the end, I'm sorry jmc but what you stated originally and what you seem to be doubling down on really does boil down to: "No fatties". Or at least... No fatties in my fantasy fiction.

First let me address this. I don't like the way you've insinuated the ideas I have presented are exclusive to one particular ethnicity. Frankly, I think it's a gross and appalling mischaracterisation of what it is I have been saying and honestly, insulting. What you are getting entirely wrong about this whole thing is, like many people I've argued with before on similar topics, is the difference between the literal and the fantastic. Your position is one coming from a literal point of view, you're essentially saying literally anyone can be a hero at any size, and from that perspective you are 100% correct, literally anyone in real life , be it the guy walking his dog down the street, to the woman on her way to work, to the kid playing soccer with his or her friends in the park, can do a heroic act, help someone out, save someones life, etc. There is no argument from me there. But I'm talking about art and story. Art and story have always been exaggerated forms of real life, because like it or not, real life is for the most part ****ing boring. Here's an art history lesson for you - people prefer the fantasy. Why do you think certain stories have lasted literally thousands of years? It's because they are memorable for their heighten drama. Even in sport the drama is heightened when they add the cinematic music for the TV promo pieces, or the emotional music underneath the interview with the athlete who came from nothing to win the gold medal. Even the best documentaries in the world manipulate the subject matter to make it seem more interesting because we as a species are drawn to drama. People want the fantasy, they want the exaggerated, the extraordinary, the drama, the impossible, the idealistic. For gods sake dude, you're a member of a forum that is literally about this very thing. Superman is the perfect example of who we can be and that's why he is beloved. If you want to make a show filled with heroes of every body shape and size, then fine, knock yourself out, but be honest with yourself and say 'look, these idealic preferences exists, and I know it's probably not going to be for everyone, but I'm going to do my own thing'. And you know what? More power to you, that is exactly the attitude to have and will probably result in something better being made. But if you think by crapping on those preferences, calling them outdated or sexualised or socially engineered or whatever will change people's minds about the idealic human being in fantasy you're deluding yourself into thinking you can change human behaviour. That's not being honest with yourself or to your potential audience, and it leads to the very reaction you're making right now, an over simplification and unwarranted accusations simply because someone thinks the justifications for the design decisions are completely misguided.

 

[Sithborg]

Jesus ****ing christ.

The various goddamn Mary Jane threads should tell you all you need to know about what kind of problems such ideals also cause. You completely ignore the negative aspects. Hell, look at all the issues Grant Gustin got for going for a logical runner's build for the Flash, instead of the standard muscle head.

Standards of beauty is cultural, not biological.

I have no idea why the designs are causing such rants. I know you aren't a fan of the designs. Fine, whatever. I would rather them have something that isn't constantly forcing budget savers. Because as much as I love Voltron, it is pretty clear that they have to make a ton of concessions to the budget. Which is something very apparent in the anime style that you advocate for so much.

Representation matters. Whether it is sexuality or body type. The more positive depictions you can get on screen, the more likely you will be able to help someone overcome issues with themselves.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

 

[Primal Slayer]

Finished finally. The last half of the season was better then the first and I liked the She-Ra mythology they introduced. Very Slayer/Avatar of them. I guess ill check out a 2nd season. Really hoping they introduce He-Man and all those folks but I have a feeling they wont which sucks.

 

[Sithborg]

I don't see He-man and Eternia getting a huge focus. Based on what I've seen in interviews, if it happens, it won't happen till more towards the end of the series. Adora having a family is too good drama to not at least do something with.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I think they should be introduced sooner rather then later tbh. Do like 2 episodes and then spin them off into their own series.