89 Fun Facts About She-Ra

Adora's original 1985 cartoon, 'She-Ra: Princess of Power', came from which studio?

Filmation built She-Ra from scratch together with a toy maker, the reverse of its earlier hit, where the studio had been handed a toy line that already existed.

In both the 1985 cartoon and the 2018 reboot, which Horde rank does Adora hold before she defects?

Force Captain is the badge Shadow Weaver hands Adora in the reboot's first episode, hours before she finds a sword in the woods and walks away; Catra goes on to claim the rank herself.

Which toy company bankrolled Adora's 1985 cartoon and made the Princess of Power dolls?

Mattel split the cast across two toy aisles: the heroines became Princess of Power dolls, while Hordak and his henchmen were sold as Masters of the Universe action figures.

Who hid somewhere in almost every episode of Adora's 1985 cartoon for viewers to spot?

Loo-Kee popped out at the end of almost every episode to show viewers where he had been hiding, then delivered the moral of the story.

In the 1985 cartoon, Adora is the twin sister of which prince?

Adam grew up with no idea he had a sister: after Hordak stole the baby Adora, the Sorceress wiped all memory of her from everyone but their parents and Man-At-Arms.

What is the name of the weapon that lets Adora transform?

The Sword of Protection carries a jewel in its hilt that holds the magic: when the stone is damaged in one episode, Adora can no longer transform at all.

What is Adora's transformation catchphrase?

"For the honor of Grayskull!" survived into the 2018 reboot word for word, even though the brother whose battle cry it echoes never appears in that series.

Adora's adventures as She-Ra are set on which planet?

Etheria is already under Hordak's rule when the story opens, so where her brother defends a free kingdom, She-Ra has to lead a rebellion against an occupier.

Which princess, a tech genius who uses her long hair like extra hands, ends up working in Hordak's lab?

Entrapta is left behind by accident on a rescue mission, so she stays with the enemy for the machines and ends up the scientist behind Hordak's portal.

Hordak is revealed in the 1985 cartoon to have been the teacher of which He-Man villain?

Skeletor showed his old teacher no loyalty: when Hordak turned up at his base in the 1985 film, the pupil used him in a kidnapping plot and then drove him off to keep the prize.

Adora's horse Spirit transforms into which winged steed?

Swift Wind gains wings, a horn and a voice; in the reboot he starts out as an ordinary horse that She-Ra's magic transforms by accident, and he promptly takes up the cause of freeing other horses.

Which 1985 film was stitched together from what became the first five episodes of Adora's cartoon?

The Secret of the Sword reached cinemas in March 1985, about six months before the cartoon itself began airing, so audiences first met Adora on the big screen.

Who co-wrote the uncredited series bible for Adora's 1985 cartoon with Larry DiTillio?

J. Michael Straczynski, later the creator of Babylon 5, said in 2018 that the studio 'never wanted any credits' on its series bibles, which is why his name is missing from a show he helped invent.

What is the name of the Horde's stronghold?

The Fright Zone once got a makeover: in the 1985 cartoon the captive Perfuma covered it in flowers until Hordak begged She-Ra to take her back.

In the 1985 cartoon, the spirit Light Hope guards which secret place?

The Crystal Castle is where She-Ra goes for advice in a crisis: Light Hope, its guardian, usually appears there as a pillar of light rather than a person.

Who developed Adora and Catra's 2018 reboot?

ND Stevenson did more than run the show: he also gave himself a small part in the cast, voicing the wind-wielding rebel princess Spinnerella.

Adora and Catra's reboot showrunner first became known for which Eisner-winning comic?

Nimona began as a webcomic its author posted while still at art college, was signed for print almost at once, and later became an animated film nominated for an Academy Award.

Adora and Catra's reboot premiered on which streaming service in November 2018?

Netflix put out three of the five seasons within 2019 alone, in April, August and November, so fans never waited long for the next chapter.

Which studio produced Adora and Catra's 2018 reboot?

DreamWorks Animation kept the rights, which is why the series vanished from its original streaming home in February 2026, when the studio's licence with that service ran out.

Which suitor of Mermista keeps setting his own ships on fire?

Sea Hawk burns his ships on purpose, steering them ablaze into the enemy, and keeps flirting with Mermista no matter how much it annoys her.

Which power is Glimmer's signature in Adora's 2018 reboot?

Teleportation runs down like a battery: Glimmer can only store so much magic, and once it is spent she has to go home to her kingdom's runestone to recharge.

Who voices Adora in the 2018 reboot of She-Ra?

Aimee Carrero was already the voice of Disney's Princess Elena of Avalor when she was cast, so until 2020 she was playing two animated princesses at once.

Who voices Catra in Adora's 2018 reboot?

AJ Michalka, half of the pop duo Aly & AJ, also sang for the show: her cover of its theme song appears on the soundtrack album released just before the final season.

Who voices Glimmer in Adora's reboot?

Karen Fukuhara made her film debut as Katana in Suicide Squad, then voiced the sparkly princess Glimmer while starring in The Boys, a far more violent superhero series.

Which black-ish actor voices Bow in Adora's 2018 reboot?

Marcus Scribner's Bow is a rebuild: the 1985 original had a crush on She-Ra herself, while the reboot's young archer ends the series in love with his best friend Glimmer.

Which actress voices the sorceress Shadow Weaver in Adora and Catra's reboot?

Lorraine Toussaint voices the woman who raised both heroines: Shadow Weaver favours Adora and belittles Catra from childhood, the wound that drives their whole rivalry.

Which Horde soldier leaves Catra in season four and asks the princesses for help?

Scorpia, long the loyal sidekick, decides Catra is a bad friend and leaves the Horde for good; with the Rebellion she connects to the runestone her family surrendered and gains electrical powers.

Who stays behind in a collapsing reality so that Hordak's portal can be closed?

Angella sacrifices herself to undo what Catra set off, a portal that threatened to tear the planet apart; her daughter is crowned in her place the following season.

Which galactic tyrant with an army of clones is the last villain Adora and Catra face?

Horde Prime rules his empire through a hive mind of identical clones, and Hordak, the villain of the first four seasons, turns out to be one he discarded as flawed.

What does Adora destroy in season four to stop an ancient superweapon?

Her sword turns out to be the key that fires the superweapon, so Adora shatters it and gives up being She-Ra, until the power comes back from within her in the final season.

What is the name of the magical cat-like creature that becomes Catra's companion in season five?

Melog, a shapeshifter whose colours follow Catra's moods, was known to the crew as her 'therapy animal'; its voice is a real cat belonging to the show's sound-effects artist.

Catra's 1985 pet, the pink lion Clawdeen, was dropped from the reboot for looking too much like a lion in which cartoon?

Steven Universe already had a magical pink lion, so the crew shelved Clawdeen and built Catra's new companion out of a one-off shapeshifting monster from the 1985 cartoon instead.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, which two princesses are a married couple?

Spinnerella and Netossa are split up in the final season, when Spinnerella is put under enemy mind control and Netossa has to win back her own wife.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, who raised the archer Bow?

Two fathers, Lance and George, are historians who keep a vast library and want no part of the war, which is why Bow hides his life as a rebel fighter from them for so long.

Which pronouns does the shapeshifter Double Trouble use in Adora's reboot?

They/them are also the pronouns of Jacob Tobia, the non-binary performer behind the mercenary, who infiltrates the Rebellion in disguise before being exposed as a saboteur.

Adora and Catra's reboot tied with the Australian drama First Day for which 2021 award?

GLAAD Media Awards honour LGBTQ representation, and the 2021 kids-and-family prize was split between the show and First Day, an Australian series about a transgender girl starting high school.

In the 1985 cartoon, sliding a magic mask over her eyes turns Catra into which animal?

A panther is what the mask makes of her, but the mask was stolen goods: Hordak took it from the captive queen of a cat people and handed it to Catra.

The Verge likened Catra's arc to that of which Avatar: The Last Airbender character?

Zuko was the bar the review set: it called Catra's plot 'the best animated antihero story since Zuko's', the point where she stops merely chasing the heroes and gets an arc of her own.

The showrunner of Adora and Catra's reboot called it basically a campaign of which game?

Dungeons & Dragons shaped the cast: the showrunner said Adora, Glimmer and Bow each fit a character class, and he took up the game around the time he began developing the show.

In the 1985 cartoon, the Great Rebellion hides from Hordak in which enchanted forest?

The Whispering Woods are the one place the rebels can drop their guard: Bow, for one, has to put on a disguise whenever he steps outside them.

How do Adora and Catra resolve their relationship in the reboot's finale?

A mutual love confession and a kiss end it: Catra's words pull Adora out of a fading vision and give her the strength to shut down the planet's superweapon.

In the reboot, what is Adora's mentor Light Hope?

An artificial intelligence built by the vanished First Ones, Light Hope appears as a hologram and trains Adora for a purpose she keeps hidden: firing a weapon that runs on the planet itself.

Light Hope, the mentor in Adora's reboot, secretly loved which earlier She-Ra?

Mara was the She-Ra before Adora, and she gave her life to strand the whole planet in an empty dimension, out of reach, so that its superweapon could never be fired.

In 2021 Variety reported a live-action She-Ra series in development at which company?

Amazon had the project at such an early stage that no writer was attached, and the report said it would be a new, standalone story with no link to the animated reboot.

In its first year on air, how often did Adora's 1985 cartoon run?

Five days a week was the pace He-Man had set, and it took 65 episodes to fill a single autumn; the second season moved to Saturday mornings and made only 28.

In the 1985 cartoon, Hordak kidnapped the infant Adora from which planet?

Eternia is where she was born a princess; Hordak carried the baby off to another world and raised her in his army, so she grew up fighting for the man who stole her.

In the 1985 cartoon, who are Adora's birth parents?

King Randor and Queen Marlena are not both natives of their planet: Marlena is an astronaut from Earth who crash-landed there and stayed, which makes Adora half Earthling.

Which princess in Adora and Catra's reboot is already a ruler at just eleven years old?

Frosta snaps 'I'm eleven and three quarters' when a guest doubts she can be in charge, and she spends the first season acting sterner than any adult so as to be taken seriously.

Which rebel stronghold do Adora and the princesses defend from Catra's army at the end of season one?

Bright Moon holds because the princesses finally fight side by side, yet it is Catra, the loser of the battle, who walks away promoted to Hordak's second-in-command.

Adora's heroic name She-Ra grew out of a toy executive's joking suggestion of which woman's name?

Sheila was tossed out as a joke while the toy makers brainstormed a female counterpart to the name He-Man, and the pun stuck.

Adora's 1985 She-Ra dolls, with combable hair and fabric outfits, borrowed the appeal of which fashion doll?

Barbie was the toy maker's longest-running hit, so the new line fused her hair-and-fashion play with action figures to win over young girls.

Which Grey's Anatomy actress voices Castaspella, Glimmer's sorceress aunt, in the 2018 She-Ra reboot?

Sandra Oh plays Castaspella, who guards a hidden kingdom of sorcerers and is hinted not to get along with her royal sister-in-law.

Adora's alter ego She-Ra was cut from plans for which live-action 1980s film so it could focus on her twin brother?

Masters of the Universe director Gary Goddard chose to concentrate on He-Man alone, even though concept art of She-Ra had been commissioned, and no second film was ever made.

Adora and Catra's 2018 reboot took visual cues from French comics artist Moebius and which Japanese animation director?

Hayao Miyazaki and Moebius inspired its look, and the reboot broke with the 1985 cartoon, whose heroines all shared one body shape to simplify animation and toys.

Double Trouble in the She-Ra reboot is a homage to Zam Wesell, a shapeshifter from which film saga?

Star Wars gave the showrunner a lifelong love of shapeshifters after Zam Wesell made a huge impression on him as a child.

Which Oscar-winning lead of Thelma & Louise voices the desert guide Huntara in the 2018 She-Ra reboot?

Geena Davis joined for season three as Huntara, whom the heroes meet in a tavern for outlaws and hire to lead them.

In Adora's 1985 She-Ra cartoon, Madame Razz's talking sidekick and best friend is which household object?

A broom called simply Broom, with a face and arms, carries the absent-minded witch through the air and is in on Adora's double life.

Perfuma, a bubbly ally in Adora's 1985 cartoon and its reboot, has total magical control over what?

Plants obey Perfuma so completely that in the 1985 cartoon she redecorated Hordak's prison with flowers until he begged the rebels to take her back.

Kowl, the snarky flying know-it-all of Adora's 1985 cartoon, looks like an owl crossed with which animal?

Koala features explain the name, and Kowl flies with his giant wing-like ears; he is one of the few who know Adora is She-Ra.

In Adora's 1985 Christmas special, which He-Man sidekick accidentally brings two Earth children home?

Orko blasts off by mistake in a spy shuttle, crash-lands on Earth and returns with two lost children and their Christmas tree.

Which Lost actor voices Glimmer's long-missing father, King Micah, in Adora and Catra's reboot?

Daniel Dae Kim's Micah is presumed dead for most of the story until the fourth season reveals the Horde had exiled him instead.

Peekablue, a far-seeing ally in Adora's 1985 cartoon, gets her multi-vision from the tail feathers of which bird?

Peacock feathers let Peekablue see into the far reaches of space, though she uses the gift only reluctantly.

Snout Spout, a firefighter ally in Adora's 1985 cartoon, has a metal head shaped like which animal?

Elephant-headed Snout Spout sprays water from his trunk; he was first designed for the He-Man toys and had the working name Hose Nose.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, which ancient colonisers left ruins and advanced technology across the planet?

The First Ones turned the planet's magic into a weapon, and Adora learns she is descended from them and can read their forgotten language.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, each elemental princess draws her magic from which kind of ancient object?

Runestones tie each princess to her kingdom, and Glimmer must regularly return to hers to recharge her powers.

The animation for Adora and Catra's 2018 reboot was provided by NE4U, a studio based in which country?

South Korea is home to NE4U, which drew the show by hand, with computer animation kept for complicated machinery.

In Adora's 1985 cartoon, the cyborg Hordak most often reshapes his body into what to make a quick getaway?

A rocket is the short-tempered cyborg's favourite escape, and he trusts science and machines over magic.

The Horde Troopers who fill Hordak's army in Adora's 1985 cartoon are what kind of soldier?

Robots in grey armour stamped with the Horde insignia, the Troopers debuted in the cartoon and got their own action figure in 1986.

Aaliyah Rose sings the opening theme of Adora and Catra's 2018 reboot, a song with which one-word title?

Warriors won praise from The Washington Post as an opening too good to skip, alongside those of Daredevil and The Crown.

In season three of Adora and Catra's reboot, the heroes follow a clue to which lawless desert of outlaws?

The Crimson Waste also tempts Catra, who takes over a gang of bandits there and briefly considers leaving the Horde behind.

In season four of Adora and Catra's reboot, the long-lost King Micah turns up alive, exiled by the Horde to where?

Beast Island is where the Horde sends its exiles, and it shares its name with one of the first episodes of the 1985 cartoon.

Which near-silent lizard man serves beside fellow Horde cadets Lonnie and Kyle in Adora and Catra's reboot?

Rogelio deserts the Horde in season four along with Kyle and Lonnie, all three fed up with the way Catra treats them.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, Glimmer's aunt Castaspella guards which hidden kingdom of sorcerers?

Mystacor was once home to Shadow Weaver, who was a mage there under another name before she was disgraced and joined Hordak.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, the sea princess Mermista rules which kingdom, shielded from attack by a great Sea Gate?

Salineas relies on its Sea Gate to keep the Horde out, and in the 1985 cartoon it was an underwater city of mermaids.

Adora and Catra's two-part finale, Heart, earned a nomination for which major science fiction and fantasy award?

Hugo voters shortlisted the finale for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and it also drew Annie nominations, including one for its writing.

In season four of Adora and Catra's reboot, Double Trouble infiltrates the Rebellion posing as which young villager?

Flutterina was a butterfly-winged heroine in the 1985 cartoon; the reboot makes her a village girl whose identity the spy uses to turn friends against each other.

Which bug-eyed henchman does Hordak keep dropping through a throne-room trap door in Adora's 1985 cartoon?

Mantenna fires energy beams from his pop-out eyes, and once or twice he turns the tables and sends Hordak down the trap instead.

Which small flying spy, able to disguise himself as everyday objects, is Hordak's favourite in Adora's 1985 cartoon?

Imp is hated by the other villains for tattling on their failures, and he once tried to frame a rebel as a traitor by hiding Horde coins in his bed.

Which future children's TV mogul co-composed the music for Adora's 1985 cartoon with Shuki Levy?

Haim Saban and Levy scored a string of 1980s cartoons, Inspector Gadget and He-Man among them, years before Saban's company struck gold with Power Rangers.

Adora and She-Ra's first published appearance, dated 1984, came in which format, packed in with the doll?

A minicomic called The Story of She-Ra got there first, and it made Catra the main villain, a sorceress who turns people into werecats.

Before Adora and Catra's reboot, its showrunner joined the writing team of which Disney animated series in 2015?

Wander Over Yonder brought him aboard for its second season, and he credits making comics on his own with landing him a writing job in animation.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, Bow hides his rebel life from his historian parents, who keep which kind of place?

A library is the family business, and Bow's parents wanted no part in the war and expected him to become an academic like them.

Which actress voiced both the heroine Adora and her feline enemy Catra in the 1985 She-Ra cartoon?

Melendy Britt was also the second animated Batgirl, and in the 1985 cartoon she doubled up again as Castaspella and Mermista.

Which producer of Adora's 1985 cartoon voiced many of its characters himself under the alias Erik Gunden?

Lou Scheimer took the alias from his father's original surname, Gundenscheimer, and recorded his parts apart from the cast because he did not see himself as a proper actor.

In Adora and Catra's reboot, their planet has long been hidden away inside which empty dimension?

Despondos is where an earlier She-Ra hid the planet, at the cost of her own life, to stop its superweapon from destroying other worlds.

Which author of the memoir Sissy voices the mercenary Double Trouble in Adora and Catra's reboot?

Jacob Tobia joined in the fourth season, when Catra hires Double Trouble to sow dissent among the rebels.

In Adora's 1985 cartoon, the hooded sorceress Shadow Weaver makes her home in which aptly named lair?

Horror Hall sits on the edge of Hordak's territory, where Shadow Weaver hides her face inside a red hooded robe.

Which actor voices both Hordak and the galactic emperor who created him in Adora and Catra's reboot?

Keston John's long list of roles also includes Wrong Hordak, a soldier the heroes cut loose from the hive mind, and the pirate Admiral Scurvy.

The showrunner of Adora and Catra's reboot published which illustrated memoir of drawings and journals in 2020?

The Fire Never Goes Out was described by The New Yorker as a coming-out story, a love story and a tale of disorientingly rapid professional triumph.