That didn’t mean there weren’t still battles to be fought, as both the creators of Korra and Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar have discussed.
Also, characters from legacy IP’s have more expectations from executives attached to them, meaning fewer risks can be taken.
Traditionally, any series that has selling toys as a main focus steers away from queer characters in an attempt to not cause any “controversy” and maximize sales. The wins for both those series and others were big, but what perhaps helped those series along in allowing queer representation was the fact that they were original characters that weren’t based on existing intellectual property and the selling of toys. That was huge, especially as the characters involved had big arcs before and after that. Yes, they were technically gemstones that took on physical form, but it was still two women getting married in a children’s animated series. Steven Universe introduced multiple queer characters and even had two main women characters get married on screen in 2018. It certainly is and, in the years since, more queer characters have started to show up in children’s animation. Konietzko even admitted that this wasn’t a slam-dunk for queer representation but he hoped it was a “somewhat significant inching forward.” Korra co-creator Bryan Konietzko revealed that there were limits to how far they could go with portraying the couple as queer, although they only asked about this during a late stage of the production of their finale. It might not seem like much, but, at the time, it was gigantic. There, the main characters of Korra and Asami held hands and looked lovingly at each other, echoing an early wedding scene between two straight characters. This is a huge step forward from the finale of The Legend of Korra in 2014, one of the first big moments of queer representation in American children’s animated media. They don’t just say, “I love you,” they also kiss and lovingly hold each other. While it did take until the final episode of the series, it isn’t ambiguous at all. Adora and Catra could have just ended the series as very good friends and while it would have been disappointing it wouldn’t have been unexpected. Many other shows, for both adults and children, have had queer subtext that is never brought to the forefront. Catra especially seemed to delight in flirting with Adora.Īs obvious as it might have seemed to fans, there was no guarantee the two characters would actually end up together. Over the course of the series, the two seemed to have something going on that was deeper, or at least different, than the relationship of two friends separated by war who were desperate to try and convince the other to leave the opposing side. Adora and Catra, the two main characters of the series, declare their love for each other and kiss. However, the finale blew all expectations out of the water. It leads to some extremely powerful moments for the couple and, had that been their entire presence in the season, would have been a great step forward for queer representation in queer media.
Not only do Netossa and Spinerella get much more screen time, but they kiss multiple times and are revealed to be married! They also get an arc in the season in which Netossa desperately tries to save Spinerella from the evil Horde Prime’s mind control. That changes in the final season, which just dropped on Netflix. They got some time to shine, but they weren’t main characters, so they were only in an episode or two a season. It wasn’t as much as fans would have liked and Netossa and Spinerella never seemed to get as much focus as queer fans wanted. Over the course of the first four seasons of the series, more representation was introduced, including two gay dads for Bow, one of the main characters. This alone was already a win for queer fans, as queer representation in media aimed at children has proven to be minimal to non-existent. The series is helmed by Noelle Stevenson, a queer woman, and has two supporting queer characters (Spinerella and Netossa) that are clearly a couple. The answer? So much more than we even hoped. When Den of Geek called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power the next step in queer representation back in 2018, just before it premiered, we had no idea how fully the show would live up to that designation. Turn away if you haven’t seen it already! Warning! This article has spoilers for the entire final season of SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER.