The Observer's Blog

She-Ra vs. Rainbow Brite

Some months ago I suffered an embarrassing defeat on a toss-up question at a college quiz bowl tournament. For those unaware, quiz bowl is a team sport, where each member of each team has a buzzer and tries to beat the other team to answer questions. If a person answers correctly they get to answer bonus questions, and if you answer incorrectly after interupting a question you lose points and forfeit the right to bonus questions for your team.

The question began, "She wore knee-high white leather boots and rode a flying unicorn . . ." and then I buzzed and guessed Rainbow Brite. Neg! After the rest of the question was read, such clues as "He-Man's female counterpart" revealed the answer they were looking for was She-Ra, Princess of Power. I have finally taken the time to investigate this wrong answer and see just how wrong Rainbow Brite was. First, I submit a TV still from She-Ra, in which she is not wearing white boots at all, but gold boots. In fact I can find no evidence that She-Ra wore white boots ever, though she obviously did ride a unicorn.

What about Rainbow Brite? Well, she doesn't wear thigh-high white leather boots, but in this picture her boots are clearly very high and there is some white trim on them. This is at least closer to the description in the question. And a unicorn? Well, it's a white horse, but not just any white horse. It has a gold star on its forehead! I contend this is pretty close to a unicorn, because it's a horse with something weird on its forehead.

In the end, I think I shouldn't have lost the points on the grounds that She-Ra has golden boots, but I obvioulsy was pretty wrong in guessing Rainbow Brite. However, not as wrong as the people who laughed at me and took away my points thought. The question remains, could a heroine-come-lately like Eco-Ra (whom I speculate is the product of the union of Captain Planet and She-Ra) stand a chance against either of these fembots? I give Eco-Ra an 80% chance against Ms. Brite (the fight would begin over Rainbrow Brite wanting to make winter more colorful) and a 10% chance against She-Ra because I mean come on.