If it hasn’t been made obvious by my time at TheGamer already, I’m slightly obsessed with Catradora from She-Ra. The sapphic pairing of Adora and Catra from the Netflix show has loomed over my life and that of my friends for years. Lesbian catgirls with piles of trauma to work through just hit different. So, of course I had to ask the person behind them for a cheeky little update.
I sat down with ND Stevenson ahead of Nimona’s release on Netflix to talk about their queer identity, adapting the beloved webcomic, and the inherent messiness of telling LGBTQ+ stories. We also explored the vulnerability of their personal comics on Substack and what exactly the two girls could be getting up to now Etheria is saved and they’ve a chance to start new lives.
“There’s a lot I’m proud of,” Stevenson tells me. “The show itself was honestly a little similar to the journey on Nimona. It was very, at times, a really difficult journey, but one that through the hardship brought a lot of people very close together until we were telling our own stories about the love that we had for each other that became the chemistry of and the story of making the show. And still, some of my closest friends are the people I met making that show. So I think [She-Ra] completely changed my life.”
With She-Ra’s final season landing in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, much of its impact couldn’t be felt by Stevenson until years later when conventions and events finally started to open up their doors again. “That message of love has been received and understood by a lot of people. Now that I’m starting to go back to conventions and meet people for the first time since they all started getting cancelled three years ago and hearing the stories of people getting married after meeting through the show, friend groups they made through the show... This is something that I’m starting to realise, but it’s had this impact that is just out there and people have it in their hearts as they go out into the world.”
But what about Catra and Adora? What are they up to? “I like to think about them exploring the universe,” Stevenson admits. “Etheria is their home, but it’s tied so much to the myth of She-Ra and The Horde and all these things they were trying to escape through the series. I like to think of them going out and seeing how big the universe is and having their journey of discovery together. Truly a road trip through space where they’re both on a ship together enjoying those quiet moments.”
A forced absence from the public eye thanks to the pandemic and the overwhelming nature of She-Ra’s success also has Stevenson questioning the legacy of his own work, and how creators are often powerless to control how it is perceived. Much like Nimona, its stories of queer rebellion and fluid exploration of identity have long since evolved into something new.
Over the past couple of years, Stevenson has been sharing career progression and more personal updates on his Substack newsletter. These comics tend to document their road of transition or aspects of their life and work which might otherwise be best shared with small audiences who are able to better understand and empathise with the tales Stevenson puts out into the world. It’s incredibly intimate, but a threshold he feels is necessary to broach.
“For me, it’s something that I have to do,” Stevenson tells me. “And I do it even when I don’t share them. I make a lot of comics for myself because making comics really changed my life. Discovering comics and starting to make them took me from someone who was having a lot of trouble telling people how I felt and having them understand that and listen in a way that I didn’t have [before]. So it feels like an emotional language that helps me figure out what I’m feeling and why, and it gives me catharsis and an outlet for that.
“Sometimes it does feel like, ‘Why am I doing this? This is so vulnerable, and I am sharing so many parts of myself,’ but the understanding I see from other people, and then on Substack, has been great. I stopped posting them on Facebook and Instagram because the focus was on them being relatable to everybody, and I wanted to be specific. I wanted to see who else felt these specific feelings because that’s what sharing these comics has done for me.”
No matter what form his work takes however, over time Stevenson has come to accept that to have a platform as a renowned queer storyteller brings with it a legacy that will always be shifting and changing beneath your feet. The audience will relate to it in different, fascinating ways and all you can do is be there to keep on creating and appreciate the impact you have.
“You don’t control how people receive your work, you don’t control the legacy that it has, and it’s strange to put out something so personal and see the reaction to it. If you can make even a small change, it can lead to something bigger, and I think that’s what I’m most proud of.”