She-Ra Episode 13 REACTION

To be fair, Seahawk was basically introduced as kind of the “egotistical creep” trope that’s in many such shows, who would often be some terrible self-proclaimed romantic interest or some such, or elsewise harass and undermine other characters. The first impression he gave was low-key pretty sexist, intentionally or no, which is also kinda hard to notice unless you’re used to having to “read” that sort of problematic stuff in a room.

Except… they undermined that presumed role of his *immediately,* to instead shape Seahawk into a satirical *parody* of such characters, before reframing him as purely comic relief, and then further redefining him as a slightly useful minor character who is more about the charisma and morale-boosting mood-making. A role that he excels at, and was clearly designed for, so that’s the main impression his character tends to leave in the long run.

However… they also never addressed the issue of his first impression, in any way that clarified the fact that his starting behavior was some kind of *satirical front*. So, it’s likely difficult for H-man to accept that he *isn’t* the same sexist, narcissistic egoist that he was initially painted as, because that facet of his characterization was never properly resolved– it was glossed over, after making a few satirical jabs at that archetype.

So, the *writers* clearly had a distaste for that dumb archetype, and created an opportunity to rebuke that kind of nonsense… but *Seahawk* never did. While Ruff, Boom, and Sioni (excuse if my spelling is off– I haven’t been able to find it written!) were interpreting the *writer’s* intent right away, and thus recognizing that those traits were more of an author tract than a meaningful part of Seahawk’s characterization. H-man, however… interpreted him as a person on his own, without the context of the writers’ intent, and is basically still waiting on Seahawk’s “apology” for being egotistically condescending in his introduction.

Because the writers moved on without resolving that, it’s difficult for H-man to move past it. He treats characters as more like people-in-a-vaccum, rather than as part of the whole narrative, per se, which leads to a much different impression. Part of which is because he takes such a detail-oriented view (which is why he’s always remembering some extremely specific details, and connecting dots), but that also means he doesn’t always have the same wider view of a narrative. In fact, that’s also part of why he takes so well to Adventure Time, where the “wide view” is much less important than noticing details.

Fun fact, this more limited perspective on narrative “wide view” is also why it’s trickier for him to get invested into the *feel* of a show, and why he doesn’t get caught up in the flow of things quite as much, or invested into, say, singing intros as much. Which isn’t better or worse– it’s just a different perspective on how one experiences media, which is quite an interesting contrast.

To be fair, I myself like Seahawk, but I get where he was coming from with that first impression– guys talking the way he did, initially, would generally be a biiiig “nope” flag, as it normally speaks to a problematic personality. In Seahawk’s case, it wasn’t. But *that was still a bad look*, even if it was immediately subverted, because it was never quiiiiite directly dealt with, and it’s easy to interpret some of his continued extravagance as stemming from that same place of ego when looking at the character in isolation, without wider context.

…the Catra slander, though, is a tad much. It seems to me, so far, to be something rather like a Vi/Jinx sort of dynamic, where it’s really just more unfortunate than it is something where one person or the other can be completely blamed for the outcome. Granted, I’ll confirm my own biases, as it’s pretty hard for me *not* to sympathize with any side of a lesbian ship, but looking at just the character’s actions, and not the context behind them, while very reasonable for evaluating *people*, isn’t always going to follow the logic that a narrative is built for.

As a *person*, it’s hard to excuse some of the things she’s done. For H-man, that’s as far as it goes, basically. Buuut as a *character*, it’s means to be a case of creating an antagonist that you root for, but are ultimately like “dammit, Catra– why are you like thiiiiis. I mean, I get it, but STILL!”

…but anyway. Giving a way-too-serious and way-too-presumptuous answer to a completely rhetorical question, is all. tl;dr:Boom, Ruff, and Sioni (again, sorry if spelling!) treat them like *characters*, and parts of the story, while H-man treats them like he would an actual human person, where the line for “acceptable” is much less flexible. Just a different perspective– but I do love the conversations it leads to, as I find the boys’ varying perspectives to be super compelling. If, uh, the massive deluge of text wasn’t making that obvious, lol.

THAT BEING SAID. H-man NEEDS to be bullied into watching One Piece! The notion that he’s calling *Naruto* better, without ever having seen One Piece, at that, is an insult to basic storytelling! Not that I dislike Naruto, mind, but it’s the principle of the matter– being stubborn about THAT, by refusing to give it a chance? Would ACTUALLY be stubborn and fun-hating! (Not being serious here– still a big fan of y’all regardless. But really! It’s so FUN, dammit!)

…this post is way too friggin’ long. I also meant to talk about Entrapta, and how she’s such an accurate representation of how isolating and consequence-blinding neurodivergence can be when struggling to relate to the motives and mental formats of those around you who don’t share in your fixations and the like, but I’ve kinda belabored the point of the writing stuff plenty enough, now. ^^;

ANYWAYS! Happy to support diamond tier, if probably only for a single month or so before dropping back to silver. Nice to have the option to occasionally upgrade for a month to get a bunch more content, but it’d be a bit much for me to stick with (broke, lol). Psyched to see the site looking better-than-ever, and glad to hear that things seem to be going so well for my favorite reactors. Keep at it! Great work! o7

[Also. Possible site suggestion. Might be difficult to implement, but a way of sorting by tier could also be helpful, kinda like how on Patreon there’s now the “Diamond rewards for ” sorts of posts. Might make it easier for new silver/diamond patrons to catch up? Though, I guess it’s never been *that* much of an issue, for silver, so it’s probably fine, either way? Maybe just something like the home page, but where you just show posts for silver or diamond? Kinda like how gold has that slick movies tab?]