The Visual Geneaology of She-Ra (1985) and He-Man(1983)

This is crossposted from Tumblr here for reasons of being able to find it later. Note: some images NSFW. Further note: ~3000 words, very image-heavy; they're not all loading for me rn, so maybe the Tumblr version is a better bet. I've been writing this in my head for two years and I finally told myself I can't make any new sideblogs until I post it, so here it is.

I spent way too long making this graphic because of the fonts and colors, but it’s a simple claim.

The visual design of He-Man, the show, was deliberately a combination of sci-fi (the look borrowed mostly from Star Wars, then huge in toys after 1977′s A New Hope) and fantasy (He-Man himself based on the Conan art of Frank Frazetta; the setting, “Etheria”, drawn from pop culture images of King Arthur’s Camelot). Therefore, STAR WARS + (CAMELOT/MOVIES + PRINCE VALIANT) + CONAN THE BARBARIAN = HE-MAN.

She-Ra was conceived as a spinoff of He-Man, and the visual design of the technology and medieval-inspired settings were carried over, but the character designs were created to appeal to girls based on a combination of fitness/ice skating fashion and the iconic pop cultural conception of Brunnhilde and the Valkyries from Wagner’s Ring cycle operas: HE-MAN + BRUNNHILDE + FITNESS FASHION = SHE-RA.

Don’t worry (you weren’t worried)! I have receipts.





But actually, let’s start at the beginning: the creation of He-Man, the toy.

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