Character analysis:She-Ra(Feat swan)

Note: Despite the pic. The profile is based mostly on the 80s she-ra.

Background

Real Name: Adora
Age: ~20s
Height: ~8’ as She-Ra
Weight: ~300 lbs. as She-Ra
Secretly the Princess of Eternia and sister to He-Man
Will potentially have a queer relationship with Catra in the Netflix series(Confirmed:Ultra)

Years ago, the evil conqueror Hordak waged war on Eternia on behalf of the Horde, an intergalactic empire, and Hordak Prime, its autocratic ruler. He (and his disciple, Skeletor) couldn’t win a decisive battle against Eternia and King Randor, so they attempted deception. Sneaking into the royal palace, Hordak and Skeletor were in the process of kidnapping King Randor’s infant twins when Man-at-Arms discovered them. Skeletor was captured, but Hordak escaped with one of the twins, the daughter, and took her to his home base, the Fright Zone, on a distant planet known as Etheria. There, under the tutelage of his sorceress, Shadow Weaver, he raised the Eternian Princess Adora to be his top Force Captain.

After years of training followed up by experience brutally suppressing the native Etherians and battling the Great Rebellion operating out of the Whispering Woods, Adora finally met her long lost brother, Prince Adam, aka He-Man. He opened her eyes to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the Horde wasn’t the benevolent force it marketed itself as. He-Man wasn’t in Etheria for no reason, though. He was sent by the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull to deliver the Sword of Protection to Etheria’s hero, who just happened to be Adora. Using the sword, Adora transformed from a mere Force Captain into the unstoppable She-Ra.

With his help, Adora was able to resist Shadow Weaver’s mind control, save her brother, and escape from the Fright Zone together. Instead of going home with her brother to stay in her rightful home of Eternia, Adora decided to stay in the alien world she grew up in in order to crush the Horde. After that, she joined the Great Rebellion, learning that they were in fact the ones fighting to preserve Etheria’s freedom, and battled the Horde to save her home. For some reason she decided to keep her identity as She-Ra a secret, and for some reason no one noticed despite her and Adora looking identical (save for the height...and super strength). Along with her Rebellion allies, Bow, Glimmer, Madame Razz, etc. She-Ra would go on to defeat Hordak and his minions at every turn and make Etheria a better place.

The new Netflix series doesn’t change too much from her backstory save for her connection to He-Man (at least at the moment). She-Ra has a stronger friendship with Catra that develops into a bitter rivalry and discovers the Sword of Protection in the outskirts of the Whispering Woods. Other than that, her adventures and powers are very similar.

Arsenal

Sword of Protection

She-Ra’s main weapon is her Sword of Protection, her counterpart to He-Man’s Sword of Power. Aside from being a double-bladed cutting weapon, the Sword’s main purpose is to transform Adora into She-Ra, as well as Adora’s horse, Spirit, into the pegasus unicorn, Swiftwind (S1E3 - She-Ra Unchained). It’s magical transformation beams can also affect other animals, giving them horns and wings as well, like when a stray transformation bolt hit a random lizard (S1E4 - Flowers for She-Ra).

Even just functioning only as a sword alone, the Sword of Protection possesses incredible sharpness, able to cut a grappling hook gifted to He-Man from the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull that He-Man himself said was unbreakable (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday), and incredible toughness, able to resist being broken despite being used to pull the Moon, reversing its movement during an eclipse (S1E28 - Bow’s Farewell). Of note, it was in a transformed state at the time, a grappling hook specifically, but its durability should remain consistent between transformations.

It’s visually identical to He-Man’s Sword of Power save for the crystal in its hilt, which possesses a few interesting properties:

It allows She-Ra two-way communication with both the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull (S1E33 - A Talent for Trouble) as well as Light Hope (S2E25 - Shades of Orko), an ancient spirit that resides in the Crystal Castle. Both can offer advice to She-Ra or an explanation of whatever magical phenomenon she’s encountering.

If the crystal is damaged, She-Ra will be unable to transform from Adora into She-Ra, though it’s unclear if it would transform her from She-Ra back into Adora. (S1E21 - The Sword in the Stone)

Its most notable ability allows the sword to transform into other weapons or tools that roughly maintain the sword’s mass (though not always), including:

• lasso (S1E14 - Friendship, S1E15 - He Ain’t Heavy)
• shield (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday, S1E7 - In the Shadows of Mystacor)
• space helmet (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday)
• parachute (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday)
• pole (S1E20 - Three Courageous Hearts)
• bolas (S1E27 - The Eldritch Mist)
• grappling hook (S1E28 - Bow’s Farewell)
• tennis racket (S1E32 - Friends Are Where You Find Them)
• boomerang (S1E43 - Welcome Back, Kowl)
• glider (S1E48 - Birds of a Feather)
• net (S1E49 - For Want of a Horse)
• ladder (S1E51 - My Friend, My Enemy)
• magnet (S1E58 - Black Snow)
• baseball bat (S2E8 - The Time Transformer)
• lightning rod (S2E14 - Romeo and Glimmer)
• discus (S2E22 - The Inspector)
• staff (S2E1 - The Frozen Forest)
• morningstar (S2E1 - The Frozen Forest)
• grapple gun (S2E2 - Ties That Bind)
• coffee mug (S2E1 - The Frozen Forest)

The sword possesses other magical abilities, including:

• Deflection of magical attacks (S1E5 - Battle for Bright Moon, S1E6 - Duel at Devlin, S1E11 - The Peril of Whispering Woods, S1E14 - Friendship, S1E21 - The Stone in the Sword)
• Absorption and redirection of energy (S1E39 - Into the Dark Dimension)
• Cutting through lightning and dispelling it (S1E62 - Magicats)
• Firing magical energy beams (S1E10 - The Prisoners of Beast Island, S1E4 - Flowers for She-Ra) as well as freezing ice beams (S1E10 - The Prisoners of Beast Island)
• Weakening a spell of possession on Adora’s mind (S1E2 - Beast Island)
• Immune to and reflects shadow magic (S1E14 - Friendship)

Abilities

Adora’s transformation into She-Ra via the Sword of Protection grants her the same basic powerset as He-Man, including vastly increased strength, speed, and durability, to accompany her already impressive skill and agility as Adora. I’ll cover her physical feats later on in the character sheet. For now, Adora also gains a number of abilities that He-Man does not possess.


Healing Magic

She-Ra can exude magical energy that heals others’ wounds. She has never used them on herself, though there’s nothing to suggest she couldn’t. She can heal even mortal wounds (S1E5 - Battle for Bright Moon), though anything more, like severed limbs, missing organs, or decapitation, has yet to be tested. Her healing powers extend to undoing magical effects, like when she unfroze Swiftwind’s frozen wing (S1E48 - Birds of a Feather), and when focused through her sword, she was even able to heal/magically disinfect an entire forest (S1E4 - Flowers for She-Ra).


Telepathy

She-Ra also possesses non-offensive telepathy, allowing her to communicate with others. She most often uses it to talk to animals (S1E13 - King Miro’s Journey) and request their aid, but she can also use this technique on humans. She can sense their emotions (S1E7 - The Sea Hawk) and even communicate with them across lightyears to other solar systems (S2E18 - She-Ra Makes a Promise).

She-Ra also possesses a number of miscellaneous/one-use powers, including:

• Magical rainbow beams she can fire from her hand or focus through her sword (S1E4 - Flowers for She-Ra)
• Her passive aura is enough to pacify giant violent monsters (S1E1 - The Sword Part 1)
• Super breath that can blow enemies away (S1E51 - My Friend, My Enemy)
• An implied immunity to being magically frozen (S1E6 - Duel at Devlin)
• Similar to He-Man’s invocation of Castle Grayskull, She-Ra can invoke the power of the Crystal Castle, the “power of all Etheria” for a power-up. She used this to form a force field around Castle Bright Moon, though she could presumably use to surround herself, or just use the power-up for a stat boost (S1E41 - Glimmer’s Story).

Other

She-Ra almost always brings along her valiant steed Spirit on her missions, whom she can transform into the alicorn, Swiftwind. “Swifty” is intelligent and can talk with the voice of a 57 year-old smoker. He can fly at high speeds through the air and even into outer space, and seems to possess similar strength to She-Ra via feats. Of note, by flying fast enough in reverse around the planet, he and She-Ra can travel backwards through time (S2E8 - The Time Transformer).

Feats

Strength

She-Ra

• (S2E28 - Swifty’s Baby) She-Ra kicks a moon and it goes flying through space.
• (S1E26 - Book Burning) Runs around an entire lake, and uses her sword to cut through the earth, then lifts the entire lake and surrounding rock and ground and throws it all the way to a nearby village.
• (S1E3 - She-Ra Unchained) Lifts a gigantic rock, and throws it into the path of the Magnabeam, blocking it. The Magnabeam was powerful enough to destroy the whole of the Whispering Woods in one shot.
• (S1E10 - The Prisoners of Beast Island) Lifts a Horde battleship then skims it like a stone across the other battleships in the fleet.
• (S1E42 - Enemy With My Face) Pulls a canyon closed with her sword-lasso.
• (S1E13 - King Miro’s Journey) With He-Man’s initial help, lifts and carries the Crystal Dome that surrounded the entirety of the Whispering Woods atop Swiftwind
• (S1E10 - The Prisoners of Beast Island) Swims so fast she creates a whirlpool that sucks up a fleet of battleships.
• (S1E17 - A Loss for Words) Splits the ground open with her sword, forcing open a huge chasm in the earth.
• (S2E8 - The Time Transformer) Swats away meteors.
• (S1E7 - The Sea Hawk) Lifts a sinking ship and swims it back to shore from the middle of the ocean.
• (S1E10 - The Prisoners of Beast Island) Lifts the roof of a tower and throws it so hard it turns into a giant spinning top that smashes into Cattra’s tanks.
• (S1E31 - The Reluctant Wizard) Spins fast enough to create a tornado and suck in a cloud, then condense it to the size of her fist.
• (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday) She-Ra implies He-Man is stronger than she is. “But He-Man, that flagship is in outer space. Can even you throw that far?” Judging by the fact that they both struggled to hold up the beam together, though, they should be in the same ballpark. They have other feats of cooperating in strength that imply relative parity, though if I were to choose, I’d say He-Man possesses greater brute strength.

Swiftwind

• (S1E28 - Bow’s Farewell) Swiftwind is able to reverse the eclipse by pulling the Moon. (calc’d to 81 quintillion tons)
• (S1E48 - Birds of a Feather) Supports the weight of She-Ra carrying the entire Horde flying ship.
• (S1E13 - King Miro’s Journey) Supports the weight of She-Ra carrying the Crystal Dome that surrounded the entirety of the Whispering Woods.

Speed

She-Ra

• (S2E26 - Assault on the Hive) Scales to He-Man, who intercepted two ships moving as fast as he and She-Ra were atop Crystal Sundancer, who was flying between galaxies in a short time. 
• (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday) Intercepted a beam from the Velvet Hand, which travelled from outer space to her in moments.
• (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday) Climbs from the surface of the planet to the Velvet Hand in outer space in minutes. 
• (S1E6 - Duel at Devlan) Deflects lasers with her sword.
• (S1E14 - Friendship) The Horde guards’ lasers seem to be actual lasers, since they deflect off of Beau’s mirror. She later deflects them in the same episode.
• (S1E9 - The Missing Ax) Blitzes around Mantenna so fast she becomes a blur.
• (S1E5 - The Sea Gate) Blocks Catra’s strikes, who is moving fast enough to be a blur.
• (S1E1 - Into Etheria) Technically outran He-Man as Adora (I say ‘technically’ because it was the least enthusiastic running sequence I’ve ever seen).

Swiftwind

• (S2E8 - The Time Transformer) Can fly fast enough to travel backwards in time. This requires him to circle the planet in reverse at high speeds, so it likely doesn’t mean he just has infinite speed any time he wants.
• (S1E44 - The Rock People) Kept up with the Rock People’s flight speed, which allowed them to cross from another star system to Etheria in a short time. 
• (S1E28 - Bow’s Farewell) Flies to the Moon in a few seconds.
• (S1E32 - Friends are Where You Find Them) Flies from outer space to Etheria’s surface in moments
• (S1E5 - Battle for Bright Moon) Swiftwind can maneuver fast enough to dodge robot jets.
• (S1E12 - The Laughing Dragon) Flies fast enough to create a whirlwind to lift a pillar of fire and drop it in a lake.

Durability

Due to Newton’s Third Law, She-Ra should be able to tank the same kinds of forces she can output, such as her feat of kicking the Moon into outer space.

• (S1E3 - Razz) Blasted point blank by a tank.
• (S1E13 - The Battle of Bright Moon) Tanks a large explosion.
• (S1E12 - The Laughing Dragon) As Adora, survives being in a cottage that’s knocked into the sky by a dragon, then lands on a hay pile.
• (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday) Her shield blocks a laser blast from the Velvet Glove, the most powerful warship in the galaxy. The laser was going to freeze over the entire Whispering Woods in one shot.
• (S1E18 - Horde Prime Takes a Holiday) Uses her shield to literally shield her butt from re-entry into Etheria’s atmosphere.

Weaknesses

She-Ra doesn’t have many specific weaknesses. The crystal in her hilt is susceptible to breaking, which has the potential to depower her, or at least keep her from transforming (S1E21 - The Stone in the Sword). As Adora she loses all her powers and is basically useless. She also can’t transform into She-Ra if she can’t speak (S1E17 - A Loss for Words). And while the Sword has allowed to resist Shadow Weaver’s mental possession, it doesn’t protect her from all magic, and has been put to sleep multiple times in the past (S1E2 - Beast Island). Her sword as well can absorb large quantities of magic, but cannot hold them for very long and must either be used or redirected (S1E39 - Into the Dark Dimension). She cannot maintain the power of all Etheria for very long either (S1E41 - Glimmer’s Story).