You know you've been watching too much television when...

...you start having deep thoughts about He-Man and She-Ra.



For example, at first glance, She-Ra is an obvious rip-off of the He-Man formula. They both have a magical sword, a heroic animal companion, 3 friends who know their secret identity, and a humanoid villain with a white face and blue skin. Add a band of female sidekicks, a unicorn, and the word "princess" in the title and you've captured to the coveted "3-7 year old girls" demographic. Right?

But the more I watched, the more differences I started to notice:

* While He-Man is a standard action-adventure story set in a mythic, magical universe, She-Ra merges magic with technology, giving the show a sci-fi spin.

* Skeletor is a straightforward evil overlord, while Hordak is more like a chief engineer -- innovative, ambitious, and exceedingly vain.

Bitchin' integrated lasergun.

* I think He-Man/She-Ra as heroic Aryan twins is a nod to Wagner's Siegmund/Sieglinde in The Valkyrie. However, unlike Wagner's Norse legend, there's no twincest... in canon.

Domingo and Wray as a pair of operatic twins who get it on.

I've obviously been thinking about this a lot lately, but I still have some nagging questions:

* She-Ra is an acrobatic fighter with a really short skirt, yet we never see her underpants. How does she do this?

* Why hasn't anyone figured out that Adam == He-Man and Adora == She-Ra? He-Man looks exactly like Adam, except with a tan, a megaphone, and fewer clothes. And, no one ever wonders why Adora always disappears just as She-Ra shows up to save the day.

* I've always assumed that Bow is gay... because of his mustache. How can a mustache be homosexual? I don't know... but it is.


* Finally, how can Skeletor have a skull for a face, and yet be so muscular below the neck? Here's what he has to say about -that-...