‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’ Is Funnier, Queerer, and Better Than Ever in Season 2

It’s fitting that a show so explicit about our complicated journeys to self-acceptance would be comfortable re-inventing itself. In its second season, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power leans even further away from the iconic ’80s series on which it was originally based. Instead, Noelle Stevenson’s Netflix cartoon has finally become its own distinct story, one that is unapologetically one of the funniest, warmest, and most LGBT-inclusive series on television.

The evolution of She-Ra from Season 1 to Season 2 feels quite a bit like Adora’s (voiced by Aimee Carrero) own rocky acceptance of her super-powered princess alter ego, She-Ra. Just as Adora started her journey bound by her past loyalties to the nefarious Horde, She-Ra premiered in a pop culture climate obsessed with comparing this series to its predecessor. By the time Season 2 opens, both Adora and the series have shaken off the bindings of their past, and become stronger for it. For Adora, that means slowly realizing that there’s strength residing in the love and loyalty she feels for her friends. And for She-Ra as a series that means putting its universe-threatening stakes on hold to explore the greatest strength of this show, the complicated relationships between its strong, central characters. That’s a fairly monumental change from She-Ra’s battle-of-the-week first season. (Note: This review is based on the first seven episodes of Season 2 that were provided to critics.)

Don’t worry, the ongoing war between the Horde infested Fright Zone and the princesses fighting for freedom, led by She-Ra, is there; and is still very much a focus of She-Ra‘s second season. But more than that, Season 2 revolves around the little moments that happen during the gaps in battles. Charged confrontations between Adora and Catra (voiced by AJ Michalka) are broken up by episodes dedicated to training, planning attacks, or just biding time. As a testimony to how much this show respects its characters, these action-free stretches are often the show’s most interesting.

It’s during these intimate moments that She-Ra shows just how important Adora’s new best friends Glimmer (voiced by Karen Fukuhara) and Bow (voiced by Marcus Scribner) have become to her. It’s where Catra’s evolution from a scorned former friend to something more tender and confused takes place, as she searches for her own makeshift home between Horde-aligned princesses Scorpia (voiced by Lauren Ash) and Entrapta (voiced by Christine Woods). She-Ra is at its best at its softest, simplest moments, and Season 2 has plenty of those treasures to go around.

But while this new season is more comfortable leaning into its softer impulses, that doesn’t mean it’s ever meek. If anything, this is a season defined by the surprising strength and self-assurance that comes through love. If She-Ra Season 1 featured characters who could be read as queer, Season 2 is blissfully, almost unapologetically gay. Not to give too much away, but one relationship that emerges feels as clear as when Steven Universe first revealed Garnet was a fusion. Though it’s not explicitly stated that this central, same sex relationship is romantic, She-Ra does everything else in its power to make it clear that’s what happening, while developing this budding romance with so much grace, it puts most of television’s countless hetero couples to shame. And that’s not even getting into the explicitly gay couple introduced about halfway through the season!

Overall, in its newest installment She-Ra and the Princesses of Power feels more like its own piece of art than a continuation of history. It’s sweeter, more introspective, and takes bigger emotional risks; without ever straying from its central story of friendship. In its second season, She-Ra is finally fully coming into its own — just like the hero it’s named after.

Season 2 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power premieres on Netflix Friday, April 26.

Watch She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix