**the following articles contains some spoilers for Kipo and Steven Universe**
Recently, I sat down and watched all three seasons of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, one of the few unabashedly good things to come out of 2020. A new animated series created by Radford Sechrist and based off his own webcomic of the same name, the show is the latest team-up of Netflix and Dreamworks following the massive (and wholly earned) success of the She-Ra reboot. It is also, alongside She-Ra and other recent works like The Dragon Prince (also Netflix) and Steven Universe (Cartoon Network), part of a refreshing trend of American animation breaking all sorts of glass ceilings by featuring significant numbers of characters who are non-white, queer, disabled, or some combination of the three. All else aside, the mere fact that these years have been truly groundbreaking in terms of broader represenation in children's television is a joy to behold.
Most of these franchises wander the realms of sci-fi and fantasy (and often blend the two), but Kipo is a solidly Earth-bound, post-apocalyptic tale. It is several hundred years after the present and an unknown event (or events) in the past led to mutations among many of Earth's animals, with many species developing cognitive, speech, and motor abilities to match humans. All of these newly evolved creatures are referred to as Mutes. The grandest examples, like massive dogs, monkeys, or bunnies the size of large buildings, are dubbed "Mega Mutes." We learn quickly that, as a result of these mutations, humans long ago ceased to dominate the planet; while some still live on the surface in isolated patches, most were eventually driven to create hidden cities underground to survive in, dubbed "burrows".
The main character, Kipo, is one of these "burrow people" who is swept out to the surface in an accident of some kind, forced to try and fend for herself in a hostile world she's never before experienced, and as a result picks up a crew of other main characters who agree to help her find her people again. However, Kipo is not just a typical girl and by no means as defenseless as she first feared; we learn in bits and pieces that her parents, as part of their scientific experiments, combined Kipo's DNA with Mute DNA, giving her incredible physical powers and even the ability to transform into a giant, hot-pink jaguar.
This sets up Kipo's very existence as a key part in determining whether or not humans can leave the burrows and coexist peacefully with the Mutes on the surface, which defines the overall narrative arc of the show. It also means that Kipo has a number of special powers and attributes about her that give her a leg up on the show's villains; the first villain, a Mute Mandrill called Scarlemagne who seeks to dominate humans the way they once dominated animals, has special pheremones that allow him to basically control minds, but Kipo, given her uniquely-mixed DNA, is unaffected. The second, Dr. Emilia, a human scientist who seeks a "cure" she can use to eliminate all Mutes, does in fact develop an effective drug in the final season, but here again, because she relied on Kipo's genetic information to create it, Kipo is the one Mute immune to its effects.
These are attributes unique to Kipo that, ultimately, she only has by chance; she herself did no special training or uncovered some new secret to give her these abilities. She simply has them by virtue of her existence. And in both cases, these repeatedly allow her to overcome or avoid dangers and obstacles that would otherwise have derailed the plot and allowed the villains easy victories. Scarlemagne gets a chance fairly quickly to douse Kipo with his pheremones; if she hadn't been immune, game over man. Similar story with the vaccine; her massive size in Mega Mute form makes her an easy target for bows shooting the vaccine, but she's also immune, so here too, a major risk is immediately avoided. In more than one instance she literally uses her body as a shield to prevent other Mutes from being "cured."
Now granted, this is nothing new. Fantastical stories almost always rely on some sort of special characteristic of its hero (or heroes) that give them a way to triumph over evil. What I find fascinating is how this intersects with how Kipo is framed as, basically, an über-pacifist. She has incredible strength, but is genuinely reluctant to use it to fight, even when she has a clear opening to take down or eliminate an opponent. She only resorts to direct violence when repeatedly forced to. Otherwise, her character is defined by an overwhelming earnestness and a very pure-of-heart desire to create a society of perfect peace, where none of the old conflicts and rivalries between humans and Mutes remain. The show even has a scene commenting directly on this, where one character asks in confusion who could ever be gifted such power and NOT want to use to gain even more power. To which the others simply pause a moment before lowering their heads and saying, in a bemused tone, "Kipo..."
Steven in Steven Universe operates in a similar vein. Steven has a whole slew of powers he inherits from his mother, including flight, super-strength, a shield and sword, and saliva that can literally heal the Earth itself. Plus, like Kipo, his mixed human-non-human heritage brings its own special sets of abilities beyond what either a regular human or typical Gem can accomplish. And yet, here too, though he could focus on developing into a fighter of incredible ability, his character is consistent in seeking to avoid, prevent, or refuse violent conflict as much as possible. Like with Kipo, he does ultimately succeed, but here too this is in no small part aided by the fact that Steven has a number of unique abilities on hand that give him a leg up on avoiding or defeating the schemes of the show's various villains.
What I find interesting about instances like this is how the narrative and the presentation of the main characters intersects with their special powers. The framing in both shows is that Kipo and Steven are genuine heroes, whose goals and motivations are good things worth fighting for, and both shows ultimately end with the character achieving their desired ends. There is, in the end, no real subversion within either show to suggest that the characters are ignorant or naive, or that blindlessly pursuing the peaceful solution in EVERY instance doesn't carry some real dangers.
Now obviously the salient reason this is the case is the simple fact that these are shows aimed primarily at children (and, full disclosure, I myself am about 6 years old at heart). There are plenty of more adult-oriented takes on this sort of material that make deeper use of nuance, complexity, subversion, and even cynicism to great effect. A product designed mainly for kids will usually be more straightforward.
Which is fine! These are two great, well-made shows that have great lessons for kids to teach and a lot of artistic talent to appreciate. I simply can't help but ask myself the question- what happens when you take away the special powers of the main characters? What if you take the exact same approach used to achieve peace in the show and try to implement it in our world, where no one has the power to literally shield the bodies of the dispossessed, and global warming can't be mediated by kisses?
It is an old quandary and one that I don't have an answer for, at least not in this short article, but it is something important to consider even while we celebrate great stories like these; how do we take inspiration from characters like Kipo and Steven and make it real in our world? The principle of disdaining power for its own sake, for being aware of its ability to corrupt, and to cultivate kindness, compassion, and tolerance in its place, are all great values worth teaching to kids. But even in the stories where our heroes win in unambiguous fashion, we can't seem to avoid enabling their victories, in part, by assuming that a) the good guys are able to access physical power inaccessible to others, and b) they are pure and good enough that we never worry about them one day abusing it. And I wonder- is there a danger in letting kids believe in that sort of thinking in their formative years? Does that set them up to be more passive in the face of injustice as adults? Or are my concerns unfounded, and is the opposite more likely to happen- that kids raised on these shows are more likely to see them as inspiration for fighting for tolerance and peace in our own world, and less likely to worry about the contradictions inherent in ideas like super powers?
Maybe this worry is only a demon of my own mind and 2020 has finally driven me insane. But I do feel the question is worth considering.
-Noah Franc
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