#I'm happy they got a heppy ending

[monstrousfemale]

hello, how r u?

you recently posted some kind of ask thing, and #3 interests me from a Shipper's Perspective.

i'd love to know your opinion.

also heppy new year! stay healthy and happy~

First of all... This ask is from December 2022 and I have no idea why it never got posted I'm so sorry! I had answered it and everything but for some reason it has been living in my drafts ever since??? I'm so sorry if this jumpscares you when I post it because you don't remember even sending it lol can u tell I'm bad at tumblr.

Anyway, here's the almost 2 years old answer, sorry again!

Hiii I'm good, how you doing friend?

Dkahdkha I'm obsessed with the Shipper's Perspective™️

3. Do you really think there is somebody for everybody?

Hmm I think there is somebody for everybody, even if it's in a platonic way. I've had platonic soulmates whom I loved deeply and care about endlessly even to this day, even after they're not really in my life.

Romance wise, I think there are some personal factors that make it so some people just have a harder time finding a good match. And who knows, maybe the one person who would be great for you lives across the world and you may never meet them. I also don't necessarily think everyone is meant for romance, I don't think that's the end all be all of the human experience.

We're definitely meant for connection, so yeah there's someone out there for everyone, it just might not be in the way you expect. I think there might be multiple people for each person, again, not necessarily romantically... But yeah people grow and change and sometimes the most important person in your life for a really long time might eventually be someone you grow apart from... And that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

[battlekidx2]

The Symbolism and Motifs Behind Adora and Catra’s Designs/Looks

Adora 

(Hair down)

The biggest visual motif that is used for Adora is her hair. When she is Adora her hair being up symbolizes her being constrained by her destiny, obligations, responsibilities, past abuse, etc and every time she has a breakthrough or is freed from one of these her hair is let down. This first happens in Destiny part 2 when Adora breaks the sword and for the first time in 4 seasons Adora’s hair is down and she has “freed” herself from her horrible destiny. In season 5 this happens more frequently. In Save the Cat Adora’s hair comes out of her ponytail when she is saving Catra, when she has resolved herself to mend their relationship and reconnect. She has once again “freed” herself from the guilt and emotional pain that came from having to believe that Catra was lost, of being able to reconnect and keep childhood promises and make new ones. And another big one in Heart part 2 after Catra and Adora confess to each other her hair once again falls out of the ponytail symbolizing Adora finally being able to reach for a future that she wants and being “freed” from the obligations that she thought she had to neglect her needs and sacrifice herself for others. Adora’s hair coming loose is (clearly through the examples mentioned) meant to symbolize emotional breakthroughs that Adora has. Adora is a character that isn’t that in touch with her emotions and struggles to comprehend things beyond what she was raised for, battle and war, so each breakthrough is her gradually breaking free of her upbringing.

(She-ra’s look season 1-4)

(She-ra’s look in season 5)

It’s interesting to note that She-ra’s redesign follows the exact opposite motif with her hair, but symbolizes something similar. She-ra’s redesign looks a lot more like Adora does than her original design and this is meant to show how Adora has made she-ra her own. She-ra is no longer what the first ones intended, she is not the sword, she-ra is Adora. Another detail is how the new design incorporates certain aspects of each of the most important people in her life: the heart on her chest for Bow, the wings on her shoes for Glimmer, and her new mask for Catra. She-ra and her meaning have been altered by Adora and her experiences and I really love that fact. This is Adora taking back control over something that was supposed to be used to manipulate her. Which is a core part of her character because of the struggles she has with her abuse at shadow weaver’s hands. This is a part of the culmination of Adora’s arc of discovering she is more than what she can do for others. That her destiny, the destiny of she-ra, is in her own hands. That the manipulations of people trying to use her isn’t what has made Adora the person and hero she is today, but the personal connections she forged and her own personal drive to do what she believes is right.

Catra 

Season 1-3 look

season 4 (and beginning of season 5) look

Season 5 look

(under prime’s control)

(once she joins the rebellion)

One of my favorite recurring motifs with Catra is the literal mask that she wears and that in this season after she decides to save Glimmer the mask is gone from her design completely. The dark exterior that Catra uses to hide her feelings and pain is gone and she has finally decided to be true to herself. Same with her eyes. Catra has heterochromia which is used to outwardly display her dual nature and warring inner conflict between her love and hatred of Adora and in the 5th season it’s used to portray her struggle between self betterment and sliding into old habits and self destruction. This is shown very clearly in the episode “Taking Control”. Whenever Catra is lashing out at Adora she’s turned so that her blue eye is the only one in frame and when Catra is being vulnerable or showing regret her yellow eye is the one that’s in frame. When she decides to use the chip to discover Horde Prime’s plan and protect Adora her yellow eye is the one in frame further emphasizing her decision to change. I really liked this detail in the episode. There is also the very obvious one in the season 3 finale where the blue eye is the one covered by the corruption in season 3 symbolizing Catra’s decision to commit to her villain role. Her darkness had won over her light. And it comes full circle once again in the series finale. Once Catra makes the decision to go back for Adora and stands up to shadow weaver her blue eye is the one shown in side views. Showing that she has overcome what had been her biggest shortcoming in this series, pushing others away to protect herself.

I just really loved how they used Catra’s character design to its fullest and didn’t waste details. It’s really easy to just be like “wow this looks cool” and then do nothing with it, but the she-ra crew was like “wow this looks cool now let’s do something with it”. For example when Catra gets her redesign in season 4 her hair is a lot less poofy and her ear tufts are gone and it’s tied into her character progression. Catra got rid of her ear tufts because shadow weaver had used caressing them as a way to manipulate Catra and her feelings. Catra now associates them with negative emotions and weakness and wants to “cut off” any possibility of feeling that kind of emotional pain again. The darker colors of her clothes also reflect her decision in the previous season. Catra’s main colors before this season were much lighter reds, but now it’s a deep, dark red showing her descent into the darkness when she opened the portal and her denial. Her color scheme changes once again in season 5. Her shoulders have maintained the darker red, but the dark sleeves that she had are now gone making it so that the lighter reds overcome or overshadow the darker red symbolizing how the light inside of her has overcome the dark. Yet it’s still keeps the colors darker than season 1 because Catra has done things since then that have made it so that she can’t go back to being that same person before she committed her mistakes. She’s a much healthier person though and has come to accept her mistakes and try to move forward in a better healthier direction (again symbolized by the color of her clothes).

I also want to point out Catra’s design in save the cat. In Save the Cat Catra is in all white and grey with her hair slicked back perfectly in place. The more Catra comes to her senses and is freed from primes control the messier her hair gets. It is similar to Adora’s hair motif, but with Catra’s hair becoming messier it can also symbolize her embracing/remembering her mistakes and the messiness that comes from trying to move forward in a more positive direction. When brainwashed and under primes control she doesn’t even remember her mistakes because Prime has “washed” away the pain along with the memory. Also white is typically used to symbolize purity but in this context it feels very out of place. This isn’t who Catra is. The reason she goes back to the red is that once again it symbolizes her decisions and choices. Catra can’t undo the mistakes so she “wears” them and acknowledges them after this episode. This is why in the transition episode Catra is wearing grey undergarments. Catra isn’t at the point where she can face her mistakes even though she has admitted them, symbolized by the transfer from white to grey. Her clothing being undergarments alone shows how vulnerable and insecure Catra is feeling about these mistakes. The very next episode after she resolves to face her mistakes she goes back to her red color scheme, again with less of the dark red than in season 4 showing her decision to change and go down a “lighter” path.