‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’s Tribute to the Original Series Is the Most Wholesome Thing You’ll See This Weekend

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may cheerfully and unapologetically be its own series, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have some fun with its source material. In its second season (which debuted on Netflix today) She-Ra pays a quick tribute to its 1985 predecessor, and it’s delightful. In an interview with Decider executive producer Noelle Stevenson spilled on what was behind this season’s sweetest throwback.

She-Ra‘s blast from the past happens in the Season 2 episode “Roll With It.” Adora (voiced by Aimee Carrero), desperate to devise a plan that will outsmart both Catra (voiced by AJ Michalka) and the Horde, tries to spend the day mapping out battle strategies. Try is the key word here. As more and more of her friends jump in to “help,” Adora’s productive afternoon devolves into chaos. As each character imagines his or her version of how the attack should go, the animation for the series changes, turning the entire episode into a revolving door of silly make believe.

For example, when it’s Glimmer’s (voiced by Karen Fukuhara) turn to wildly theorize how she’s going to defeat Catra, she imagines herself as a cross between a lady James Bond and the hero of every anime. Naturally for her period-piece dream, Catra appears as a fur-clad ’60s-era vixen complete with an eyepatch wearing cat.

“I love how Glimmer sees herself,” Stevenson said about this very silly moment. “She so badly wants to be like this cool badass and everyone sees her as this adorable dumpling. She’s so hard in her heart.”

But the coolest animation change happens when Bow (voiced by Marcus Scribner) takes the reins. Not only is Bow the undisputed hero of his fantasy, save for having working arrows. His battle strategy also involves each of these characters sporting their original She-Ra costumes.

For Bow that means growing an elaborate mustache, for Adora that’s swapping out her functional shorts for her predecessor’s super short skirt, and for Catra that naturally means regaining the ability to turn into a panther at whim. It’s difficult to decide what’s more fun about Bow’s fantasy: seeing all of these characters in their classic costumes or Adora’s exasperation over his pun-loving Catra. It’s She-Ra doing what it does best, embracing its lovely characters in a way that’s fun and silly yet still completely authentic to who these people are. Of course the not-so-secretly romantic Bow would imagine himself as the dashing, manly hero his character used to be. And of course he’d step up the fabulousness of both his friends and enemies in the process, handing out capes and elaborate costumes changes. Have you even seen Bow’s midriff? This is a man who gets fashion risks and theatricality. He appreciates old She-Ra.

I mean, just look at this elaborate Catra and just try to think of anything more delightful on the internet today.

“It was such a fun episode, it was something we kind of knew that we wanted to do from the start,” Stevenson said of the episode. “It was kind of challenging because of all these different styles. So you have to come up with different character models for every single one. But everyone really pulled together and worked really hard on it. I am so pleased with how it came out. It’s one of my favorite episodes.”

Watch She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix