She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 4 Review: The Heart of Etheria

11/05/2019 01:27 pm EST

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has been a favorite of mine since it released its first season. Because it's consistently ranked so highly for me personally, my expectations for each consecutive season have only raised higher and higher. Now that we're here, with Season 4's 13 episodes having been added to Netflix, it was genuinely a consideration as to whether it could possibly begin to live up to the high praise of what came before.

And yet, somehow, it does.

Following the devastating conclusion of the previous season where Catra set off the portal, Angella was lost, and Entrapta was banished, the new season wastes no time in getting right to the meat of things: Bright Moon has a new queen, and Glimmer struggles with her new responsibilities from the start. It's just one of many status quo changes that ultimately rock the world to its very core — literally.

This season's major strength is the vast cast that's been established previously. What could have easily made the show feel stuffed or overwhelmed with secondary or tertiary characters has instead made it feel vibrant and alive on both the Rebellion and Horde side of the equation. It helps that every new character introduced, from last season's Huntara to this season's Double Trouble, occupies a unique and interesting role within the greater whole.

While previous seasons have touched on the relationships between characters, Season 4 finally has the history to really dive deep and take a look at how everyone fundamentally relates to each other. These insights can be as brief as a smile followed by a frown when someone looks at another person and then away or as long as entire episodes focused on specific insecurities.

What is She-Ra's role in all this? Is Adora worthy or good enough, or is she only causing more problems? If winning can't make Catra happy, what can? Are the Best Friends Squad still best friends if they're fighting all the time? None of these questions have easy answers, and She-Ra Season 4 doesn't pretend like they do.

If you weren't already sold on what She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is doing with these classic characters, nothing in Season 4 is going to convince you otherwise. If anything, it's like the previous three seasons were all prologue leading until the final moments of Season 4's finale. Everything builds naturally on what came before, but if what came before didn't do it for you, well, the destination won't either.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 4 takes everything good about the previous seasons and polishes it until it shines. It is never lost that there is a war going on, and that means horrors and atrocities, but the show manages to make its message about hope in spite of that. The show is just as much about Adora, Glimmer, and Bow being friends as it is about the struggle against Catra, Hordak, and the Horde.

But if you were already into what the show was doing, exploring, and creating, there's even more to love in the new season. There are goofs, tears, revelations, devastations, and songs — yes, songs — aplenty. And if the season's closing scenes are any indication, things are only about to get even more wild for the people of Etheria, and I can't wait.

Rating: 5 out of 5

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 4, consisting of 13 episodes, is now available on Netflix. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the series right here.

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