She-Ra and the Three Laws of Reboots
Along with the Oscar-winning Roma, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has been one of Netflix’s major 2018 highlights. It came a long way from being just troll-bait (because apparently, nostalgia-blinded people thought that a rancid 80s toy franchise didn’t need changing). Through the streaming leviathan, Dreamworks had gambled on the ideas formulated in the mind of Lumberjanes cowriter Noelle Stevenson. The bet has paid off handsomely, as a new Tumblr-based fandom has gotten attached to the show and its characters (myself included, dear reader).
Which leads to an important question: now what? After all, we’ve pretty much seen in slo-mo how Voltron imploded narratively. Now, most fans of that show only have the first few seasons and a reference by the Wu-Tang Clan*. Ok, that fandom’s descent into madness is exactly what the new She-Ra fans are trying to avoid, but that’s a discussion for another day. Then again, Voltron was what got Dreamworks to dive head first into streaming, so perhaps some pop culture lessons can be learned.
These lessons can be obvious, like “for God’s sake, don’t make your brown-skinned lead end up as a farmer.” But once you go deeper, the strategies become much more nuanced, more than just being trendy for trendy’s sake. It’s about social media coordination, knowing when/where to smile and when to go in for a fight. It’s about writing a good story and having the talent to back it up. It’s also about a sense of humor, in terms of witty comebacks and ensuring old memes get ditched quick-smart. Or, to invoke the spirit of the great Isaac Asimov, ensuring your reboot follows the Three Laws of Reboots.
This can be considered part of the First Law of Reboots: Be ready to ditch the material that does not work, or has aged like milk. Logic dictates that the original source material will come from an earlier time, and so has certain values that are from a less civilized age. In the case of She-Ra, it mainly revolves around the lazy 80s moralizing and some generally regressive gender norms enforcement, aside from the whole “glorified toy commercial” aspect. The Netflix version seems to have been made for real children to actually enjoy, not for the adults to program children into becoming self-serious corporate tools. Or rather, self-serious suburban corporate tools, which has proven to be somehow even worse.
It now leads into the Second Law of Reboots: If the original had something that makes it unique in hindsight, take that concept(s) and develop it further. Remember how everyone made jokes about the original He-Man’s unintentional homoeroticism? Yeah, Stevenson and the others have brought that back, but it’s better written this time around. Not a high bar to clear compared to the original, but this time it is genuinely heartwarming. There’s a sense of loving acceptance to the LGBTQ side of things, not scenes tailor-made for jokes by the United Prep Schoolers of Kentucky.
With that in mind, there is going to be a needed corollary to either the First or Second Law: Consider the moral arc of the universe, especially in how it bends towards justice. Admittedly, the ideas behind this oft-repeated quote have a lot of loaded terms, especially for social matters. A simple way to resolve this as a creator is to constantly ask yourself this question: “Where do I want my praise?” If you get your praise from neckbeards, 4chan and country music fans… hate to be blunt here, but you’re doing something wrong. But on the bright side, if you get praise from literally anywhere else, it means that you’re headed in the right direction.
Of course, the First and Second Laws leave a lot of creative room, as no two works are alike. So now we conclude with the Third Law of Reboots: Put new ideas in side-by-side with the old material, and remix whenever possible. The reason why, dear reader, is quite simple: bad reboots are made more prominent when they separate the old and the new stuff into different artistic sections. The audience will notice that stuff, and it’ll draw attention to whatever trends your company is blatantly ripping off in order to cash in on a social media trend. Prominent examples of this are the Amazing Spider-Man movies and that Mummy movie with Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe.
These Three Laws of Reboots are taken from observations and are not meant to be set in stone. But when you are the creative force behind a reboot, the most important you should do is have fun. Not only that, but you should also say unique about the original that makes people think. But if you fail to heed these guidelines, the only thoughts to be had are, “Why don’t we watch the original instead?”
*Technically from the old version, but who’s counting?
