She-Ra and Mythology
Netflix’s She-Ra has some really interesting approaches to mythology, folklore and legends. The words “myth” and “legend” get thrown around a lot in the show, but where they show up is always of interest. She-Ra’s approach to mythology isn’t interesting because its vastly different to what we may think, but rather because it remains very true to the way mythology is conceived and actualised in the non-fictional world as well. She-Ra gives us a lot to dig into when it comes to mythology, including the relationship between myth, history and legend. It also shows us how myths can shift over time, and gives us some level of insight as to why this occurs, including the great influence colonising powers have over the transmission of narratives.
Before Adora even picks up the magical sword, the story of She-Ra is already a myth. According to several characters in the early episodes, there hasn’t been a She-Ra in over a century, meaning the story of She-Ra has shifted from one of history to one of mythology. Several characters reference She-Ra as “myth” or “legend”, and both of these are contrasted starkly with the concept of She-Ra as historical.
In many English-speaking countries, this is precisely how we view these three particular narrative types: where myth and legend reside has no overlap with history. There is also the added difference between myth and legend – where myth is that which is in a sacred time away from time, and legend is more loosely connected to history. In this mindset, the narrative flow moves from history, to legend, to myth. In reality, our narratives do not really work as neatly as this. Many times, narratives shift from one to the other and back again fluidly as we engage with narratives and bring them from one perception to another. Robin Hood, for example, may have at one point in time been a historical figure, but has passed on to legend. If another national figure arises again who takes money from the rich billionaires of the world and attempts to spread that wealth to the lowest on the socio-economic scale, we may once again revive the legend by connecting it inherently to this re-newed historical figure. In fact, this is precisely what some scholars think happened to Robin Hood. Early documents show outlaws using the name Robin Hood (in a variety of forms of course) into very early English history – the idea being that they would obscure their own identity with that of a legendary figure. These figures, then, become of interest and become intricately connected with the legendary figure. For some, the original Robin Hood may have dated back to the Norman invasion in 1066, where figures fought to retain the original way of life for the Saxxons, including their language and religion. But that’s a story for another time, perhaps.
She-Ra throws another added complication in the early conversation around She-Ra: legends, myths and histories are not always known to the same extent by every member of society. Different generations, and even different figures within those generations, are going to understand, connect, and interpret these narratives, regardless of where they fit in our neat linear scale of myth to history, in different ways.
When Adora first transforms into She-Ra, Bow and Glimmer are equally confused as to what has happened. They don’t recognise She-Ra or understand her relevance to the world. When She-Ra introduces herself to the Queen, however, the Queen knows instantly who she is and even interrupts She-Ra and names her before she can name herself. In fact, the Queen introduces She-Ra as “the legendary She-Ra”.
The use of the word legendary is important here. The Queen understands She-Ra as connected to history, but loosely and perhaps to never be connected again. This is in direct contrast to Bow’s dads, who also claim knowledge of the She-Ra story.
In this episode, Bow’s dads are portrayed as historians. Their knowledge base is rooted to the narratives as history rather than fanciful narratives, but they do understand the place of mythology and legend in their influence on and around history. In one conversation, they show an argument between the two of them over a First One’s mythological hero – where one believes it may be more rooted to history while the other does not. Bow’s parents approach the She-Ra story not with cultural or social knowledge, but with history and an attempt at evidence. They are scholars of both myth and history, rather than storytellers.
The knowledge the older generation has of She-Ra in contrast to their children demonstrates how cultural knowledge can be lost through the progression of generations. With the exception of Perfuma, most of the characters around Adora’s own age, or in their circle of friends, do not have the cultural knowledge of She-Ra. Many of their surprises at She-Ra’s transformation is simply in the magical-girl transformation, rather than in knowledge of the mythical figure Adora embodies.
Of course, the older generation’s knowledge is also not united, but fragmentary and at times in contradiction. Even in our two examples we’ve already given, we see two primary differences in the understanding of She-Ra. The Queen explicitly mentions that the First Ones said that She-Ra would return again at “their greatest hour of need”, but this particular part of the narrative (or history) is never referenced or explained again. This could be because of the Queen’s status as a divine being grants her access to a greater memory than that which can be held by cultural memory, but a solid answer is never really provided.
Where the Queen’s knowledge is passed down or part of direct memory, the knowledge Bow’s dads hold is more scholarly. These two approaches to the narrative can result in two different understandings and different tellings. This may be the reason why Bow’s parents didn’t mention the message from the First Ones that She-Ra will return when Etheria needs it most. This may not be due to a transformation in the narrative so much as a difference in understanding.
That’s not to say that transformations in the narratives are impossible. Transformations in narratives happen all the time, and for a variety of reasons. Most often, transformations in oral narratives are thought to be caused by a failure in memorisation. The human brain simply forgets bits of information, or misremembers other bits. But this may not be the truest understanding of oral transmission of narratives. Often, these transformations happen actively and knowingly by the storyteller.
We see this happen early in She-Ra. When first visiting Perfuma, Perfuma’s people begin telling stories of the legendary She-Ra’s mighty feats. Bow gets swept up in the moment and begins telling other narratives. While he does not hold the cultural memory of the older She-Ra tales, he does elaborate on the tales of the fights Adora has already taken on. While this does add a bit of a fun moment that has the added consequence of pressuring Adora, there is something else that we see in Bow’s retelling of She-Ra.
There is a purpose to Bow’s tales. Perfuma’s people are scared and worried about the potential loss of their homeland and the physical threat the evil Horde represents. Their purpose of spinning the tales is not simply to hype up Adora/She-Ra for the – what they see as inevitable – help she will provide, but because the cultural memory of someone who can do such feats is a symbol of hope in a very dire moment. Bow picks up on this, and adds to the tales to continue to give them hope, and to inspire them to continue to fight for themselves and their homeland – to allow them to the live in the moment of peace and light when they have not had the ability to even dare to hope so much before.
Alterations and added flair to narratives like Bow’s happen all the time. Bow did not forget the events he’s talking about, but he’s actively choosing to add to them. Similarly, more traditional storytellers have, throughout time, actively chosen to alter the narratives they tell – not because they have forgotten but because it is an alteration which suits the need for the time and context they find themselves in. Narratives of great princes and kings would not do well in the middle of the French Revolution, for example – but rather great tales of ordinary people who rise to statuses of hero through their support to the poor. With this in mind, alterations to narratives can be used to fit the purpose, to inspire communities to continue to fight, or to dare once more to hope for better days.
And Bow is not the only one to transform narratives in She-Ra to suit certain purposes. The biggest transformation of narratives occurs with the First Ones, rather than the narrative of She-Ra specifically. The First Ones were colonisers on the planet. They’re described as people who first came to the planet but who left after, which is set in contrast to the indigenous population who seems to have no place in the historical telling of “first ones to settle” – a narrative many indigenous populations around the world may be able to relate to. While it is not explicitly mentioned, it is made clear there were inhabitants to the planet prior to the First Ones through Madame Razz’s explanation that She-Ra existed long before the First Ones came and connected everything through the Princesses. This alludes to the presence of people who acted as Princesses and She-Ra as already on the planet at the time of colonisation.
Like most colonisers, the First Ones stripped the planet of most of its natural resource. For Etheria, that resource is magic, and they crafted technology like the Rune Stones to siphon magic and control it. Because of their superior technology and control over magic, which extends to the important Etheria figures like She-Ra and the Princesses, the First Ones quickly rose into a prominent position of power. Positions of cultural and social power presents the ability to change and alter narratives or understandings of narratives to fit their own role.
We can think, again, of our relationship drawn between myth, legend and history. We think of history as something evidential and factual, but history is as much a crafted story as fiction. The fading of information, the alteration of ways stories are told, the choice to leave out certain details or pump up other details are choices often made throughout history, and these are the stories which are then passed down. I think everyone is familiar with the phrase “history is written by the winners”, and this understanding can be passed to our understanding of all narratives, including mythology. Returning to our Robin Hood narrative – if the historical roots of Robin Hood as someone fighting for the rights of the Saxxons following a Nroman invasion is true, than these origins have been scrubbed from the contemporary storytelling, with national identity replaced with generalisations of “the poor”. While this may be due to a passing of time, it could also be due to the continued power presence of the Normans, whose influence over the Saxxons never waned, and who forever changed the language, religion and history of the British Isles.
As colonisers, and colonisers with a great amount of power over the planet, She-Ra’s First Ones had great control over their own narratives and presentation in the narratives around them. We see glimpses of the way the First Ones presented themselves, and how their legacy continued into their own mythic image. In season two, we see Adora and her friends stumble onto some holographic projections from when First Ones were still living on the planet. Adora is surprised when they realise what these projections are.
She expresses surprise that they are “just people”, which is an interesting commentary on the coloniser. The expectation is that First Ones were somehow larger due to their own mythic image. This disconnect of what First Ones actually are versus the image they are presented as in the narratives leads Adora to struggle to recognise her own genetic makeup as not from Etheria.
The transformations of the First Ones could have, potentially, been incidental through their own sheer powerful force in the world of Etheria. But their active transformation was enacted on the story of She-Ra. Throughout the show, She-Ra seems to be inherently tied to the First Ones and their technology of the Sword. The narrative of She-Ra became tied to the First Ones, as is noted by the Queen’s commentary on how the First Ones spoke of She-Ra returning. But we learn, later, that She-Ra existed far before the First Ones came to settle Etheria.
The First Ones needed to shift the narrative of She-Ra because it was an inherent part of their control over the magic, and therefore She-Ra. If the actual enactment of She-Ra was inherently different from the narrative of She-Ra, it presents an aspect of possibility and potentiality which escapes the clutches of that which is outside the system of oppression and control. If Mara, for example, knew of the story of She-Ra as disconnected from First Ones, she may have noticed an ability to escape the system before she actually did, and the same can be said of Adora as well.
This is also not completely outside the way mythology works outside of fictional worlds as well. For example, our only connection to Norse mythology is through the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, which were written through the eyes of a Christian missionary, a form of coloniser whose view of the people and the narrative may not match up with the view of the people who shared the narratives before. This is now the only understanding of this narrative we now have – we are only left with the First Ones narratives, and not with the understanding, stories and histories of the indigenous population.
The experience of mythology in Netflix’s She-Ra is complicated and intricate, and touches on many aspects of the understanding of mythology and storytelling outside of fictional circles. What makes She-Ra so fascinating is its ability to communicate complex understandings and complex characters in simple and easy to digest ways. In some ways, She-Ra is the story of the silenced oppressed colonised, but one told through the eyes of the coloniser. And if dig a little into it, we see connections to ourselves and our own understandings of myth and story.