Techtite Feature Article!

"given the overall 'pink and lace' nature of She-Ra, [adding Hordak] was a silly idea. The concept was not unlike trying to spice up the line of My Little Pony toys, by adding a dinosaur."

---from the article

-------------

Sidebar :

-------------

No sidebar comments for this Feature Story Yet...

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

If you want to make a batch of girl toys under a boy-toy label; fine. Just about every brand with longevity to it, has toys for boys and girls: Legos, Play-doh, Fisher Price playsets, video game systems, and on and on. Fair is fair.

However, when trying to be fair, can you at least be consistent? Consider this when looking at the world of She-Ra; He-Man's twin sister, now known as Aurora. As a young adult, Aurora learns of her true destiny when He-Man must give her the power sword which is rightfully hers. She quickly decides to use these powers to fight evil...but in her world, not He-Man's. What girl can blame her...? This is a very girly world she was taken to: crystal castles, flying horses, fairies with shiny glitter wings...

...and Hordak. Why Hordak? There are many explanations. One is that the originally planned enemies of She-Ra weren't ominous enough, so they brought in The Evil Horde; a batch of action figures in the He-Man toy figure line, not yet introduced in the He-Man cartoons. They quickly re-wrote the story so that Hordak was part of She-Ra's world instead. However, given the overall "pink and lace" nature of She-Ra, this was a silly idea. The concept was not unlike trying to spice up the line of My Little Pony toys, by adding a dinosaur.

It didn't help Hordak's image, when most of his animation was the exact same stock footage, which was recycled endlessly. We can only presume that originally, Hordak was intended to be able to "morph" into whatever weapon or construct he thought of to defeat an enemy. Yet because he originally fought She-Ra as a top and a tank, these were his most frequent forms when fighting She-Ra, over and over again. This was not only repetitive; it made him look like a total moron. I mean, the top idea didn't work, dummy; can you think of something else? Oh, yeah; turn into a tank. That didn't work either, though. So, let's try the top, anyway; maybe She-Ra has a really, really short-term memory! <Pow!> <Toss!> <CRASH!> Nope; I guess not.

I can see the conflict of interests at work here. They couldn't have She-Ra fight little cute fluffy furry things. They needed an actual villain. However, Hordak wasn't the best idea. He was clearly a boy toy in a girl toy world. He also wasn't very bright. Unless you'd actually fight the exact same enemy as a top...a tank...a top...a tank...a top...a tank...

-------------------------------

 What was your choice for best/worst cartoon characters, ever...?

Send your opinions to Techtite's Letters page!