#“catra is not self-centered she just didn't want adora to sacrifice herself!!”

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

hmm. i feel like what c//a stans fail to take into consideration is that.. shakespearean tragedies were never supposed to be romantic. they were supposed to be tragedies.

i just know for a fact that op here was referring to the infamous romeo and juliet when they talked about “shakespearean tragedies”, because that's the most notable example of a forbidden romance. but the point of romeo and juliet wasn't the romance, it was the dramatization of an adolescent relationship due to family feud. romeo and juliet were never truly “in love”, they were children who were infatuated with each other, as often happens with children.

not to mention, the conflict in spop was so forced, it was more frustrating than tragic. especially at the end of failsafe. instead of having catra work on her abandonment issues and try to help adora in whatever way she could, the show decided to have her project her issues onto the person she allegedly loved and abandon adora when she was practically on her deathbed. this isn't a tragedy, it's yet another example of catra being self-centered and toxic.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

i just want to talk about the two times in spop where adora was ready to sacrifice herself to save the world. the first one was during The Portal, where adora needs to pull out the sword and angella is the one who talks her out of it.

notice how angella speaks to adora. she understands that adora is not in a very good state mentally and thinks that her destiny is to serve the world. adora is trying to be brave but she has clearly accepted her fate at this point.

so what angella does is she assures adora that her life is worth living. she tells adora how much she has inspired people and that her destiny is not to face certain death for the greater good. she motivates adora to continue living and reassures her that her existence has had a positive impact on people.

now let's come to the second scenario, in The Heart pt. 2. where adora is once again forced to sacrifice herself in order to save the world. this time, catra is the one who is trying to save adora. and what does she say to make adora stay and realize her worth?

“i love you and that's why you shouldn't die.” this is catra's speech summarized.

she doesn't try to comfort adora or give her a valid reason to stay. she doesn't remind adora of all the good that she's done or all the people who care for her.

no. to catra, the situation is simple. the only reason she wants adora back is because she loves her. which sounds sweet enough on paper but since we've seen how self-centered catra can be, it's clear that she's only thinking of herself at this moment.

if she really wanted adora to recognize her own self-worth, she would thank adora for saving her from prime or remind adora of all the good she has done. but the closest catra got to saying this was “you've never given up on anything, not even me” which is. E for effort but it's inaccurate. adora did give up on catra after the portal incident.

adora says that she failed and the only reply catra can think of is “no”. just that. it's not even frustrating at this point, it's funny. she's not even trying to convince adora otherwise, she's just like “no”.

but yeah, even if we omit the victim blaming and guilt tripping, catra's speech just sounds selfish. instead of focusing on adora, she talks about herself. and sure, she didn't have time to say as much as angella did, considering that adora was already dying at that point. but she could have said anything, and the only thing that occurred to her was “i love you even though i still hold you accountable for something you didn't do”.

(also “i got you, i'm not letting go” girl, she's not falling off a cliff, she's dying because of the failsafe. you holding onto her body isn't gonna do much.)