Trivia / She-Ra: Princess of Power

• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Make fun of the pat aesops all you want, but there was a genuine documented case (related by producer Lou Sheimer in his book Creating the Filmation Generation) where a girl who was the victim of molestation reported her molester to the authorities "because She-Ra told her to."
• Descended Creator: Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as always, voicing — among others — Kowl, Spirit, Leech, Mantenna, Grizzlor, all Horde Troopers, and reprising Orko.
• Executive Meddling: Word of God is that creating action sequences for She-Ra was more challenging than He-Man, because in addition to pressure to tone down the violence, they also had to compete with higher-ups who didn't approve of a woman being so forceful against challenges.
• Follow the Leader: Galoob Toys tried their hand at a competing line with Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones, a range of female warrior figures that mimicked the She-Ra aesthetic mixed with a bit more Conan the Barbarian (which resulted in the characters wearing skimpy outfits that could easily be mistaken for 1990s Image Comics), and had the rubber band legs of MOTU figures. It didn't catch on. Based on the trademark dates it may have been more that they were trying to do the same thing (create a version of He-Man for girls) at the same time rather than specifically copying She-Ra. The trademarks for the two lines were filed only weeks apart. Ironically, Galoob's decision to make their figures an inch taller completely ruined any cross-compatibility with clothing accessories once the two lines were released, which no doubt hurt sales further.
• No Export for You: This series misses a legitimate release, or a dub, anywhere in Japan, not even a single season of the show was aired there. (This is weird considering it is a Magical Girl Warrior animated series, and thus the Magical Girl genre originated from Japan.)
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Crossed with Merchandise-Driven, as originally, as with the comics, Catra was meant to be the Big Bad in the cartoon. Hordak and the Evil Horde were toys made for the boys-oriented Masters of the Universe toyline. But because Filmation was wrapping up their production of He-Man cartoons at the time they started She-Ra, the Horde was too late for that cartoon (only being hinted at in the episode "The Origin of the Sorceress"), but right on time for She-Ra. So instead of the cartoon taking the route of the mini-comics, which were often stereotypical romance-driven action plots with Catra and She-Ra vying over Bow, viewers were treated to a more traditional action show where the lead character was an action hero who just happened to be female, rebelling against a villain who had already conquered the world. This was also why two of the Snake Men were included as part of the Horde^note King Hiss, the leader of the Snake Men, never appeared in either series.. The Snake Men toys came too late for He-Man, so Rattlor and Tung Lashor were added to She-Ra in order to promote toys.
• Referenced by...: Shep from The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester has She-Ra patches on her backpack.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy:
  • For whatever reason, few of the characters looked at all like their toys did- minor changes included Hordak (recolored mostly blue and without the cape) and Bow (given facial hair and a heart emblem on the chest), from major changes such as Catra (completely different outfit), Imp (red winged demon to blue pig-like winged comedy relief) and She-Ra herself (again, completely different outfit not to mention swapping her unique sword for what was basically He-Man's blade with a jewel). Most notable is the Crystal Castle, which was originally a pink, glitter-covered palace, which in the show, became a tall, golden tower whose visage closely resembled She-Ra's helmet. This actually caused some fandom complaints when Classics used the Filmation models as the basis for the toys (the exception being Hordak- toy colors for the main release, cartoon colors as an exclusive), with only two toy versions released (Bow with alternate parts, and Bubble Power She-Ra).
  • While Filmation owned all of the redesigns for He-Man, Mattel actually created all of the She-Ra animation model sheets in-house before production began. Whereas a lot of legal issues had to be worked out before Mattel could make Filmation-styled He-Man toys, they had no such issues with the She-Ra side... though these issues would also complicate matters when the Netflix reboot happened, leaving He-Man's cast unavailable.
  • Supplementary material often went back on forth on who was She-Ra's friends or enemies. Castaspella is unambiguously good in the Filmation cartoon, but some media made her a villainess. Entrapta was a villainess in the cartoon, but was neutral and on somewhat friendly terms with She-Ra in the comics. One confused reader even sent a letter in asking about the latter.
• Star-Making Role: In the Mexican Spanish dub, it was this for Patricia Acevedo as Princess Adora, along with Sailor Moon, Misa Hayase/Lisa Hayes and Lisa Simpson.
• What Could Have Been:
  • She-Ra's original name was going to be 'She-Ro', as a Mythology Gag to He-Man's original planned name of He-Ro. Lou Scheimer felt that the name didn't sound feminine, and it was writer Larry DiTillio who came up with She-Ra - inspired by the Egyptian god of the sun.
  • Adora's name was also considered to be Eve, as Theme Naming with Prince Adam. This was dropped since the characters were twins. Glimmer was also changed from Shimmer, because the former was easier for the voice actors to say. Hordak was originally called Reaper.
  • Spirit was also written to be female, but was changed to male. Also, in the Five-Episode Pilot, only Swift Wind is able to speak. It was later changed so that both could speak.
  • Huntara's original character model sheet and description both described her as having brown skin, making her look far closer to her inspirations—both to singer/actress Grace Jones as well as the way Storm appeared in the X-Men books of the time (the mohawk era). She was changed to purple before animation began, as Filmation's legal department did not want to risk a lawsuit.

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