Fan Art: Loads a' Swords from Grayskull

Here are six swords from the various incarnations of She Ra and He Man.

Sword of Protection: This version of She Ra's iconic sword is based on a statue I found when looking for reference when I started this She Ra fan art project. I don't love everything about that statue, but I think it reimagined the blade quite well.

Sword of Protection: The original version of She Ra's sword that started as a direct spin-off of He Man's show. The clear difference between this sword and He Man's Power Sword is the just the gem. Animation is expensive and they could explain it by having them be some sort of twined swords.

Power Sword: Here is He Man's original sword. It is fine. I am surprised if anyone is truly in love with this sword for any reason other than nostalgia.

Sword of Protection and Power Sword: The twin swords brought together. I imagined this card as a completed item set card where having both swords unlocks special bonuses like collecting a set in Diablo or World of Warcraft. This card also reminded me of a large inspiration for this project, the absolutely amazing art assets for items in Otogi: Myth of Demons. I am sad Otogi and Otogi 2 didn't get more recognition. I felt like my brother and I were the only two kids who ever played this wonderful games.

Power Sword: This version of the power sword is also based on a statue I saw when searching for reference. I am disappointed I did this sword second because I think it looks slightly better than the statue based Sword of Protection and this whole set is inspired by She Ra and the Princess of Power. 

Power Sword: This is of my least favorite hero weapons ever. The 2002 reboot of He Man had an art style that I did not love. It heavily leaned into the sci-fi of the sci-fantasy world of Eternia and I just didn't love it. 

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I have had these chilling on my computer for a while so I thought I'd post them this week. When this posts, I will be camping and hopefully the weather will be cooperative.

The differences between the original She Ra and He Man are very telling of how gender stereotypes have determined facts about characters. In the original series, She Ra almost never actually uses her sword as a weapon, usually using it to deflect lasers. This may seem innocuous, but the writers were told that She Ra shouldn't be aggressive or violent when she defeated her enemies. I bring this up because a lot of people aren't high mindedly aware of how stereotypes in writers' rooms impact the media they consume which in turn impacts their opinions and can lead to the internalizing of stereotypes.

A character's gender identity shouldn't limit them to a prescriptive set of character tropes, so be creative with your characters and push boundaries of what is possible.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph