#and catra gets away with everything

[adorawasright]

alright, please correct me if i'm wrong. but in s5, do they ever bring up the fact glimmer was manipulated by shadow weaver?

weirdly enough, glimmer and catra don't actually bond over that. they were both victims of shadow weaver. they're very much alike, you could say they're narrative foils (which they explore in s4). but the main difference being the fact glimmer recognizes her mistakes and tries to do something about it. catra, though, just continues to run away from her problems and refuse to admit she's wrong.

and another relevant thing to bring up here is that shadow weaver also pitted glimmer and adora against each other, the same way she raised catra and adora. i'm surprised this specific conversation never happened. catra could've finally realized that adora had no fault in anything. it was always their abuser's fault.

but instead, catra and glimmer just bond over adora, and not even in a very endearing way, since they're making fun of adora sleep fighting. which is clearly a trauma response. but adora's suffering is either funny or sexy, for some twisted reason.

anyway, i do sort of recall a scene where micah gets angry at shadow weaver, but i don't remember if he explicitly brings up the fact SW manipulated his daughter. i'm guessing he does, but it's probably never mentioned again (considering micah gets chipped later on). which is sad because father AND daughter were taken advantage of by the same woman. but given this show's history of handling trauma, well, we don't see that happen properly.

(micah would also be very fucking pissed if he found out catra is the reason why angella is gone. and i'm guessing that's why he got chipped. but that's a topic for another post)

i hate this. i hate how glimmer is handled in s5. she lost her mother, she was manipulated and almost lost adora, and she still goes through a hard time. while i'm not saying bow shouldn't have been angry with her, because glimmer did mess up, i don't like the fact glimmer suffers more than catra, who arguably did worse things than she did. glimmer deserved so much better.

[revrevrew-personal]

Relationship status: Single :D

Favorite color: Green - went from my least favorite to my favorite recently.

Song stuck in my head: I'll Call Your Mom by Noah Kahan (go listen to it crazy ppl - so good - it's about clinging to life after suicidal ideation and the help that people give you along the way)

Favorite food: Tacos - but like trash American tacos. Don't get me wrong if someone put traditional tacos in front of me I'd eat that shit all day but I do have a preference.

Last song listened to: I miss you, I'm sorry by Gracie Abrams

Dream trip: A 2-year trip to Spain Barcelona - I want to learn Spanish and experience culture the way it is experienced by the locals.

Last show/movie: She-Ra (I'm absolutely here for Catra in a suit... Anyone else think that Lance should've ended up with Keith?)

Spicy, sweet, or savoury?: Sweet - unless it's Panda Expresses's Orange chicken then I want whatever that is.

Last thing googled: Why has grammerly taken over the f-ing internet?

Tagged by @mj-iza-writer , thanks!

Rules: Tag 10 or more people you want to get to know better.

Relationship status: Single. Happily so, but still open to the thought of mingling 👀

Favorite color: Any blue or cool toned purple

Song stuck in head: Slow dancing in the dark, by Joji

Favorite food: Pad Thai

Last song listened to: What's good, by Tyler, the Creator

Dream trip: Going to Costa Rica this summer, so I'll just say that :D

Last show/movie: Terrifier 2 (love Art. he's my babyboy <3)

Spicy, sweet, or savory?: Probably spicy, but sweet is a very close second

Last thing googled: Are mason jars microwave safe (they are!)

Imma just tag some random blogs I follow <3

@sickiehugs @dainluvr @roblingoblin285 @sunnynwanda @saraswritingtipps @shibara @whumblr @wh3nturtlesfly @oprhan @dappermouth

Of course, no obligation and no pressure :]

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

honestly, i think the double standards with catra and glimmer stems from something other than pretty privilege, and it's something i've seen in a lot of media.

take, for instance, the atla fandom demonizing aang and katara but coddling azula. or the su fandom villanizing steven but making excuses for spinel and lapis.

and the reason for this is that villains or antagonists are always given more freedom to make mistakes, to do heinous shit, to be cold or rude or insensitive to others. the logic being that "they're the villain, of course they're gonna be horrible".

with heroes, on the other hand, there's this subconscious judgment whenever they make a mistake. heroes are meant to be perfect and as much as people say that they want more antiheroes, they always judge a hero based on how morally good they are.

which explains why katara is hated on for saying something insensitive out of repressed grief and trauma, but azula is coddled for committing multiple war crimes.

why glimmer is bashed for being kinda mean and making some bad choices due to grief and pressure, but catra's conscious choice to attempt genocide and willing participation in war is justified.

why steven is villanized for having a mental breakdown after years of suppressed trauma, but spinel's attempts to kill dozens of people on earth are excused.

why mabel is demonized for being kinda selfish sometimes and for being manipulated into giving away something she didn't know the importance of, but bill is loved by everyone.

why korra is blamed for trusting her uncle and losing her connection to the previous avatars, instead of unalaq being held accountable for manipulating her (unalaq isn't really coddled by the fandom but there's a huge victim blaming problem).

simply put, people want heroes to be pure. they want surface-level flaws like clumsiness and awkwardness, not REAL flaws. as much as these people say that they want more morally grey or complex heroes, the truth is that they can't even handle their hero being kinda rude to someone.

especially with characters like glimmer, mabel and katara, who have a more traditionally feminine aesthetic and is generally a good person, people expect them to be well-behaved and perfect all the time. even though both these characters were shown to be passionate and stubborn and fierce from the very beginning, people are still blindsided when they actually take a bold stance or act on their emotions.

and with steven, he was a nice, happy, easygoing kid in the beginning and he tried to remain optimistic throughout all the trauma he went through, so people just expect him to do that forever. to always repress his feelings and never give himself the space to express them, to always focus on being a therapist for literally every other character and to never prioritize himself.

and like sure, villains are meant to be evil. i'm not telling anyone to water down their villains. but there's a difference between liking a villain and excusing their actions. i like azula. i like all of the villains in tlok. i like bill cipher. i even like catra and white diamond minus their shitty redemption arcs.

but i'm not going to set double standards by justifying everything that a villain does and demonizing a hero for acting out of line once. especially if the hero actually takes responsibility for their actions and tries to be better, and the villains just get forgiven for doing the bare minimum.

[age-of-wonderbeasts]

nobody talks about how adora literally revived catra from the dead.

We don't often see the healing capabilities of she-ra's powers throughout the series, but what we do see shows A LOT of growth on adora's behalf.

Season 1 episode 4 Adora/She-ra struggles to heal the plant life in Plumeria, and instead resorts to solving the issue by doing what she does best, fighting. She is new to the She-ra mantle, so she doesn't have full control over her powers, but we also see the expectations placed on her by other people because she is she-ra. adora doesn't know how to heal trees, this doesn't come naturally to her.

In the following episode Adora heals the Salineas sea gate a lot easier than her attempts with the trees. this could be seen as Adora slowly understanding the magic of she-ra, or that because the sea gate is a piece of machinery, she finds it easier to heal, or "fix" than any living creature.

we also see Adora struggle with healing later in season 1 when glimmer is "cursed" by shadow weaver and is "glitching." Although played off as a joke (nature of the show being kids tv), adora cannot use the sword or the power of she-ra to heal her. Still, she has not held up the mantle of she-ra for long, so her understanding of healing, which completely juxtaposes her entire upbringing and everything she is used to / knows she is good at, is limited. This is something Adora isn't naturally gifted at.

Then, in season 3 episode 1, Shadow Weaver makes her way into brightmoon, and is essentially dying. She convinces Adora to heal her, which she does, and she becomes less weakened by her lack of magical energy. However, Shadow Weaver's magic is not fully restored, as seen in the rest of the show, she still needs to absorb magical energy to use it, a lasting effect of the obtainment spell as no other sorcerer requires this.

So we have seen a progression in Adora's healing abilities through she-ra. I would like to reiterate that healing goes against everything Adora was raised to be, everything Adora thinks she is. healing will not and does not come naturally to her as it goes against her very identity.

but in s5 ep 5, save the cat, catra dies. All the way dead. Adora's eyes and emotion in the moments when Catra is chipped are ones of pure horror. Absoloute terror. Enough to bring back the magic of she-ra without the sword the first ones made to control her. (We had already seen she-ra in the previous episode, but this is the first big she-ra appearance post sword breaking in season 4).

So as Catra is in Adora's arms, either dying or dead, we see Adora transform into this new, self-actualised she-ra form that is more representative of Adora as a whole, merging the two characters from 2 seperate entities to one character who basically gets taller and stronger from time to time. And with this, comes all of she-ra's powers.

And on this ship, as they're flying away from Horde Prime, Adora/Shera holds a dead Catra in her arms. And the sheer raw emotion, the guilt and fear of losing her, the hope of bringing her home, the realisation that she can't lose her, never hated her, loves her, it takes over. We see both their bodies glow as Adora brings Catra back from the dead. The growth of adora's healing capabilities is fully realised here. Here, she is a fully actualised, powerful she-ra, and her character development is [almost] fully realised. The fact she is able to heal her friend/lover completely, bringing her back from the dead, when in the first season she couldn't heal a tree is really a testament to not only Adora's physical growth in terms of power and magic, but her emotional growth as a person. It shows how her values have changed, how her principles and ideology have become so much more, transcended the expectations of "warrior" placed upon her. She has become more than what they expected of her. She is now, in this moment, a fully realised she-ra.

And I think the fact she becomes Adora as soon as Catra is healed shows her consideration for her. She knows catra will want to see her face, her true face, because that's what she knows. That's her home.

I love them so much

[antispopausandstuff]

you guys know the s5 scene where catra left adora to die?

here's another thing i noticed.

she's apologizing for dying. while it's really fucked up, it is within adora's character to apologize for something she couldn't control. i can't recall, but she did something similar to glimmer and bow a few minutes prior to this.

however, while the writers may not have intended for this, adora is also apologizing for this:

now, you might be drawing a blank at how this is correlated to her apology, until you remember what exactly catra and adora were talking about here:

adora is about to die.

originally, the conversation was about adora somehow choosing shadow weaver over catra ( which did not happen ), but when catra wasn't winning the argument, she shifted it to be about adora practically being led to her death.

catra's wording starts out as her acknowledging that adora doesn't have a choice in this ( which goes against her earlier reaction to just crying and running away from her when she gets the failsafe ), but then it changes its tune and becomes an accusation of choosing this path, when adora has been forced to take this.

basically, adora is apologizing to catra in the finale as if to prove that catra was right, even though she's literally dying right in front of her.

and catra never apologizes for leaving her.

speaking of which, would this apology even work on catra?

because we all know the real reason she left.

she left because somehow, someway, she twisted the entire conversation and everything related to shadow weaver as adora actively wanting to be around their abusive mother, despite showing multiple cases to catra herself that she doesn't.

adora doesn't like being around shadow weaver. she doesn't like her at all. she may not want the woman to suffer harshly, adora did heal her when she was sick, but she doesn't want to be around shadow weaver if she doesn't have to be.

and catra knows that. there's several instances throughout the show that she's smart enough to see and understand that. she even uses a torture method sw used on her previously on adora and swift wind in the previous season, because she knew it would severely hurt her. especially since catra, for whatever reason, put the electrocution on steroids.

so, it's not like catra has been blind to adora's distaste, she just chooses when to acknowledge it.

catra sees adora eventually dying as 1. choosing to die and 2. choosing shadow weaver over her, in this current scene.

adora has no idea catra thinks this way, so her apology for just dying is not only really fucked up, but is most likely entirely pointless.

these two don't see the same problem. at least, not the exact same one. catra may still be pissed off at adora daring to "choose" the universe over death, for daring to choose the lives of literally everyone on the motherfucking planet over herself, but she's still more upset at adora "choosing" their mother over her.

so, what is adora apologizing for exactly?

yes, for dying, but how does catra see it? knowing catra, the best case scenario is she probably sees it as adora apologizing for being "wrong" ( because she says "no matter what happens, i am staying with you", but then gaslights adora into staying ), and for choosing their mom over her, even though neither of those are true or correlated within the context.

this level of thinking is on par with stans, so i'm not surprised catra herself acts this way.

it sure did hurt my brain when i realized it, though.

[that-one-kiddo-in-the-back]

Fandoms creepy obsession with torture... Lily doesn't understand depression or trauma.

I've been sitting on this one for a while, so let's dig in. Today's word of the day is "Martry," a person who is killed for a belief.

Right off the bat, Lily starts talking about how we as a fandom is obsessed with the torture of WOC using Korra, Luz, and Anne and an example for a dark joke she made in her moon girl review and in this video she's only gonna be using Korra, Luz, and some She-ra.

She starts with Korra and the torture she experienced with the red lotus, the group that's been trying to kill Korra ever since she was born, and how in her Korra is garbage she was pretty harsh for how it portrays her trauma at the final season. She then goes on to explain the torture scene, how you saw everything in all its gory detail, makes a small insult towards Korra's VA, then how she's tossed around like a rag doll then almost suffocated with the end of all that being shown Korra weakly reaching for her father before she passes out... "a heartbreaking shot that is under cut by the sheer sadisticly glee the writers had when the tortured Korra." Something I found kinda funny was that in her long ass Korra is garbage video, she complained that you didn't see a dictator...acting like a dicktator. Korra is the main character in a made for teen show made in 2012, so yeah, you're gonna see the poor girl getting beaten down. In the 2010s, a lot of shows that were aimed for teenagers showed a bunch of main characters getting beaten down with barely any psychological effects. Teen wolf, young justice, the fosters, your name, and Chronicle all shows during the 2010s that displayed pretty horrific scenes of torture or just getting beaten up and that wasn't because of the fandom or the writers being fucking weird it was more of a trend that started out of nowhere.

Lily then decided to call that all torture porn all because Korra's trauma is erased, with there still some mercury in her body. She then goes on about "how people said that Korra's behavior is realistic because that's what people think trauma looked like you being sad and demotivated." She continues by explaining that trauma is deeper than which is true to a degree. That fact is trauma is not one thing. You can be depressed and not even want to get out of bed, which changes how you think. Lily thinks that just because Korra was able to slowly pick herself up that she's back to normal and not bothered by almost getting killed to which I say Lily did you really want to see Korra have panic attacks and constantly hallucinat? Because it sounds like you do.

At the end of her talking about Korra, she finishes it by saying that the torture wasn't necessarily and a big fuck you to character development and that it was just the writers getting off to the idea of torturing women... now to Luz.

Lily starts out by saying that Dana terrace is really into depressing and the macabre, but on a fan girl surface level and still thinks creepy pasta is cool (keep that shit out of your mouth Lily) Lily really can't help herself but to drag women/nb/transmen creators through the mud in her Korra section she didn't name drop or even show a picture of the creators or writers even though she said the men where showing off their creepy "torture fetish" before watching this I watched her video on Catra and Adora's relationship and how abusive Catra is and Lily called ND Stevenson a Creep and an abuse fetishist and I think this all comes from a place of jealousy because they were able to make something amazing and be green light for shows where no one is a right mind would trust Lily with a five dollar bill.

After Lily was finally able to pull herself away from talking shit on female creators, she finally started talking about Luz's trauma, bringing up how, in the last episode of the first season after Eda was dragged away she starts to fight Lilith and says that was her trauma response which it's not really. Eda being captured was the beginning of the traumatic experiences Luz was gonna go through. As the show went on, you can see more of Luz blaming herself for things out of her control. Even when it was the smallest thing, she'd go way out of her way to make it up. Luz's trauma response is trying to fix what she broke she's the kind of person that would bring treats as an apology and tell the person she wronged how sorry she is for a week.

Lily then goes on to complain that in season 3, she doesn't do anything she mops around instead of trying to fight like in season 1, but a lot has happened between 1 and 3 Luz's trauma and depression all falls from her blaming herself for everything that happened.

Eda being captured, seeing her mother and the promise she made, failing to attend her father's grave, seeing all of the past golden guards empty helmets, watching Hunter get dragged under by belos, finding out she help belos met the collector who in turn gave him the draining spell, and the final nail in the coffin being King sacrificing himself to protect her resulting in Luz and her friends being stuck in the human realm with no idea if their parents and family are alright. Who the fuck wouldn't be depressed after all that?! She says she wanted a scene where Luz talks about her trauma which she already does she talks to her mother she knows that everyone else isn't having a good time either so she doesn't want to talk about it. If you found out all of your friends were not doing so hot, would you really want to bother them with your problems? That's the thing with deep deep depression it makes you think the world would be better off without you. That you're a pest to your friends and family and that they would be happier without you, which isn't true, and even when you know that you can't stop thinking that anyway. Lily talks about depression like it's something easy to get over with, that if Luz just really sat down and talked about it, she'd instantly feel better and go back to her ass kicking self but that fact that she didn't Luz is now a terrible girlfriend.

Now, we all know how Lily deals with people who have crippling depression which to say she kicks them to the curb and dusts off her hands of the situation. Remember Lily broke up with someone who was in a horrible state of depression saying that she was being toxic and a waste of time, and to that, I say what kind of a cruel person ditches someone like that?

She calls Luz a shit person for having crippling depression for not talking about the root of her self blame. Luz has been keeping her role in helping belos with the mass genocide and other things a secret and lies because she believes the truth would hurt them more she's not being a shit person on purpose. Luz never expected her friends to paddle her bad behavior or to even shower her with affection she's expecting the opposite. She thinks that if she tells them the truth, they will look at her with disgust and leave her, you know, like the mind trap the collector put her in that showed her worst nightmare. That you would have known if you watched it!!!

Lily once again blames Dana for not having a crying scene when her show was canceled, and instead, we got a realistic depiction of crippling depression. She goes back on calling everyone in the fandom creepy fucks that like our slow burn hurt with no comfort fics and how we like it even more when it's with women and black people. Now I like my edgy fan fiction, and it's not because I like seeing black women getting tortured. I simply like it as an outlet. I like seeing strong men and other characters at their lowest. Seeing how people write out how they would react most of the stuff I read, I would never want to happen to me or my loved ones. Hell, if my friends tell me their in a depressed state, I'm not gonna leave them to dry (like some people).

Lily also really has the biggest balls to call professional writers bad when she only writes fanfiction she's done it with RS, ND, and Dana. As if she could do better. I write fanfiction, and I would never put myself up there with actual show writers and published authors she brings up her shit Star Wars fic, saying how her fan base around the story wanted to see the angst that she scrapped out then proceeded to call them all racist and sexist for wanting angst. This shows that her fic is so boring that people want to see more things happen.

And now we are finally towards the end of this garbage video, where she brings up how, in her personal life, she used to like being called names, and her "friends" told her it's just a kink and it doesn't mean anything but her therapist told her it's a problem she then goes onto say that she was making herself worse until she met people who loved her and that kink went away... now I'm glad she was able to fix her own problem, but that's not a universal thing. Some people need outlets, and kinks can sometimes help. It's not for everyone but to call people liars, freaks, and judge them for their own outlets is a fucked up thing to do.

Lastly, no writer has the intention of having their audience of kids jacking off to torture scenes. I think that says more about you, Lily, if that's what your conclusion was. The writers weren't freaks because you thought it was hot.

Do yourselves a favor and don't take mental health advice or writing advice from Lily.

[baggebythesea]

"I have the BEST idea"

She-Ra characters ranked after how worried you should be when they suddenly proclaim they have The Best Idea, from least to most.

Juliet - Good. She will most likely reduced the damage of the drama disasters she's standing guard over.

Angella - she's just hosting a tea party or reforming the tax system or something

Spinnerella - Although her good ideas might be a challenge for her wife, most other people will come out of it relatively unharmed.

Hordak - There's a good chance his ideas actually ARE good, or at least will keep Entrapta entertained which is a net safety plus for everyone else.

Castaspella - she'll probably just give you another sweater, but you might want to be on the lookout for Drama just in case.

Frosta - don't get me wrong - it WILL be shenanigans, but there is a good chance it will be pretty benign

Catra - If she calls it a good idea it will probably just be a juvenile prank on Glimmer's expense. She's perfectly aware how bad her TRULY bad ideas are

Perfuma - Hopefully girl just wants another club night (which will totally end in dumb drama), but be on the lookout for cacti, just to be on the safe side.

Netossa - EVERYTHING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A COMPETITION, NETOSSA!

Swift Wind - Horse shenanigans

Adora - More Horse shenanigans

Bow - just smile and nod while you back away out of arrow-range.

Micah - No, Micah. It's a bad idea and you know it.

Imp - Stop chewing on cables, Imp.

Scorpia - it will be totally BENEVOLENT, but that is not the same thing as HARMLESS. Also, gal never learned to read the room when it's time for hugs or not.

Glimmer - it COULD be a tea party. It COULD be an illegal fight club. It COULD be extremely ill adviced black magic. Just make sure to keep Bow at hands.

Sea Hawk - To be fair, his good ideas are really hard to differ from his bad ideas.

Mermista - SHE PRACTICES AT HOME!

Double Trouble - There is a difference between 'good' and 'entertaining', you know that, right?

Horde Prime - He has never had a good idea in his life and is not about to start now.

Shadow Weaver - Is utterly convinced all her ideas are great, which given her track reckord is not very comforting.

Entrapta - run, just run. Preferably to a less hackble planet if you can.

[pollen-blogs]

Rants from a tired writer: Tragic Backstories

Dear writers and readers/viewers (depends on medium), for the love of everything please PLEASE understand how to use tragic backstories for antagonists properly!!!

An antagonist's traumatic past is an EXPLANATION for their poor behaviour, not an excuse!! That kind of backstory is here to show that it's rare for someone to do bad things just for the sake of being bad; a lot of the time, antagonists have a reason for behaving antagonistically (or you could have someone like Emperor Belos who has a reason for behaving antagonistically but also does bad things just for the sake of being bad, which is awesome).

That's why sometimes it rubs me the wrong way when fans of a certain piece of media dislike an antagonist's redemption arc just because they felt like the show was throwing them a pity party. Of course, there are times where writers are guilty of doing that, and I'm criticizing them here as well. The antagonist's traumatic past is here to humanise them, to remind the audience and characters that in spite of it all, they're still a person. In cases where the antagonist is redeemable, this can make the audience and characters sympathise with or even relate to them.

A lot of people hate her but I don't care, I'm going to use her as an example anyway: Akito Sohma is one of those redeemable villains that gets humanised through her and Tohru's shared experience of being ostracised and abandoned.

No, you're not supposed to feel bad for Akito because she cried and said she felt lonely. You're supposed to feel bad for Akito because Tohru is the first person to treat her as a human being and not as a God, as well as validating her fear of being left behind by saying that she feels the same way. + You're supposed to feel bad for Akito because she is denied the right to be herself in every single way possible, including, but not limited to, her gender.

Akito getting redeemed does not take away all the pain and trauma that still affects the members of the zodiac that she hurt. In fact, not all of them forgive Akito, and that is okay. Akito herself states that she would have been fine not being forgiven at all, she just wanted to better herself. Her apology wasn't even done through words, but actions; she could not bring herself to say "I'm sorry" to all of her family because she didn't want them to think she was apologising just to make herself feel better or to gain their forgiveness. Anyway, I love Akito so much and I will write love letters to her in my analyses every time I have the opportunity to do so, you're welcome.

However, there are times where writers really do mess up and just want you to feel bad for their poor little moral scapegoat. I have not made a She-Ra critical post in so long, but who else fits the bill more than Catra? Her traumatic past does explain her resentment and violent tendencies towards Adora, but the show lost me the second they tried to make it into an excuse. Not only that, but making Adora "leaving" Catra a central point of the tension in their relationship when Catra was given multiple chances to leave just made me want to bash my head into the nearest wall.

The big problem with Catra is that she does not change, nor is she held accountable for her actions for longer than one episode. The only thing that did change is that she does not physically abuse Adora anymore, but the verbal and psychological abuse does remain. And lastly, the viewers and characters are considered objectively wrong for not trusting or liking her even though they have legitimate reasons not to. Of course, I'm not saying that the characters are not allowed to forgive her, but forgiveness is earned not owed, and Catra has done nothing to earn it, and it would have been nice for at least one character like Adora, Entrapta, Scorpia or anyone to have said "I'm glad that you're trying to become a better person, but I don't have to be there to witness that. I wish you the best but I don't want you in my life anymore."

Well, I have said my peace. I might start posting more writing takes on here while still talking about my favourite shows/books by using them as examples, let's see how it goes! I love writing so much so I'm very glad to be able to express that on my socials :)

[anti-catradora-collection]

TRANSLATING AND GIVING MY HONEST OPINION ABOUT THIS TWITTER THREAD:

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ DO NOT GO AFTER AND DO NOT HARASS THE CREATOR OF THE THREAD I'LL BE COMMENTING HERE. thank you.

"it pisses me off when ppl say they love enemies to lovers and then say that catra//dora is toxic.

like, ENEMIES is not when one person steps on another's toes and gets angry towards them"

keep reading under the cut:

yeah, "enemies" certainly is not when one person steps on another's toes and gets angry towards them. even google knows that. enemies to lovers is completely different from rivals to lovers.

however, c//a aren't enemies either. they have never been.

they were simply abuser x victim. and that's mainly because adora never really felt any hate towards catra. she even tried to make catra join the rebellion multiple times.

additionally, adora knew how to defend herself, but wouldn't do more than she needs.

catra, on the other hand, would relish on BRUTALIZING adora. she even tried to end the whole universe out of spite to adora, willing to kill them both in the process.

and let's not forget: catra did all this with a smile in her face, proud of being able to manipulate and control adora.

they were never mutual enemies. adora mostly viewed catra as someone to fear. most of the time, she felt powerless when the matter was catra. to be honest, even when the matter wasn't her, it's shown that she felt that way. damn, she even had a panic attack because of catra.

and let's not forget how catra and adora's fights are always viewed as "flirtatious/sexy" and, surprisingly (or not), they are always with catra on top while adora is unable to fight back for any reason (be it for an emotional or physical reason, temporarily or not).

the only exception for what i said above is this scene, where i don't even believe adora is being flirtatious (for me, she's simply being smug) and where she's not even talking to catra in person.

of course, there's times where adora physically hurts (or tries to hurt) catra back, but it's solely to DEFEND HERSELF/OTHER PEOPLE. catra takes advantage of adora's kindness cuz she knows she won't be able to cause the same harm as catra does.

NEXT:

"enemies to lovers is ALWAYS toxic in the enemies part. a relationship where you are the other person's mortal enemy is not even possible.we ship catra//dora precisely because they get to the lovers part, and when they get to it, there is no more toxicity."

I'm so sorry to break it to you, but C//A has been toxic before, during and after they were in opposite sides of the war. here is an example of this. catra always made it seem like it's adora who's always abandoning her, but it was catra's CHOICE to stay in the horde.

C//A relationship occurred on an existing pattern: adora accidentally says something that makes catra mad -> catra hits/insults her -> catra runs away, expecting adora to chase after her and feeling like she's rejected if that doesn't happen. it even happened while they were KIDS.

and let's also not forget about catra gaslighting and slapping adora in that one episode while she was going through another panic attack. "catra didn't know something was going on!!!" she literally had "flashbacks" about things that did happen and adora was clearly not okay.

catra could've been a good friend like glimmer was for adora in the hot springs episode, listen to her, try to help and properly calm her down even if she didn't know what was happening, but catra didn't. she insisted on her own view that everything was perfect instead.

catra also makes it seem like adora is the abandoner multiple times in season 5. like girl you're the one who literally abandoned her even in S5 plsss-catra CHOSE to stay in the horde, adora tried to make catra come with her since forever. catra was the one running away.

she even framed adora as being the violent one in their relationship with this scene:

"how am i supposed to fight my own friends?"

"it never stopped you before."

it's almost like catra wasn't the one always trying to hurt and murder adora all the time... lol.

NEXT:

"apart from the abuse that catra (and adora) suffered throughout her childhood AND her fear of abandonment, the only reason catra treated adora the way she did was because she suppressed her feelings in such an absurd way that she was even violent."

uhhh.. no?

you're telling me catra tried to kill adora multiples times and destroy the universe because deep inside her heart catra LOVED adora?

this is honestly giving me "he hits you because he likes you!" vibes. i bet if catra was a man, you wouldn't be saying stuff like this.

plus, shall i say something that may sound a bit... harsh:

THIS. IS. NOT. ABOUT. CATRA.

of course catra is traumatized.

of course catra is also abused.

of course all these facts helped building up catra's character.

but nothing justifies the way she treated adora.

"but catra was abused, she was raised in a harsh way, she doesn't know any better!" what about we stop making adora's abuse about her abuser...? everyone kinda seems to forget how catra was also a w4r crim1nal lmao. of course catra deserved love. but not in the way she got.

catra also needed to be held accountable for her actions, which she didn't. "she was brainwashed by horde prime which made her suffer a lot!" okay, and? catra also brainwashed and put adora into a lot of pain and that fact was never once brought up again.

i mean, catra literally was a gen0c1dal w4r crim1nal. she killed lots of people (including glimmer's mother). again, she tried to end the universe. she destroyed villages. she attempted to kill adora multiple times. was she even questioned about it?

no. the princesses immediately take catra in with them as soon as adora says "she's with us now". there was not even a proper discussion about it.

NEXT:

"as soon as she gets sufficiently comfortable in being vulnerable and admitting what she feels to adora, there's no reason for her to be violent because there's nothing else to suppress. the acception of her "true self" breaks the cycle of abuse and that's WHY +"

not gonna comment on it cuz i already said how catra has been abusive during the entire series - even after she has been rescued. "she was going through a lot" and adora was too. It just wasn't fair for catra to treat adora that way simply becuz "adora doesn't want mee! :(".

like, girl, this isn't about you. you ASKED adora to save the world but then you get angry when she decides it's something she NEEDS to do and states that no one else can do that. like ???

NEXT:

"they turn into a couple.

double trouble themselves tell catra exactly what she has been doing during all seasons to hide and deny her own feelings for adora. because these feelings made her feel uncomfortable."

excuse me, double trouble was also wrong about that. starting by the way they said "left you" while turning into adora when we know it wasn't what happened, there's also the fact that their speech wasn't only about catra's "feelings" for adora.

it was also about catra feeling abandoned and rejected by EVERYONE she knew: shadow weaver, scorpia, hordak... or are we going to forget the fact all these people were also in the scene?

but even the show itself tries to make it seem like adora was the abandoner only for the "just this once, stay" quote to make sense. another reminder: spop's writing is very far away from being the best.

NEXT:

"I would NEVER ship catra//dora the way i do if they haven't got a redemption and if the "enemies" part hadn't come to an end. at most, I'd think they have chemistry and potential for making out, but their healthy relationship is only possible due to their happy ending."

i don't even know what to say- this person lost me at "I'd think they have chemistry and potential for making out". why the hell do you think catra abusing adora would be hot, SPECIALLY in a scenario where they keep being "enemies"???? 😭

also, yes, they got a "happy ending". but at what cost?

catra lied to adora and insulted her even during her confession;

catra never really changed, this series simply tried to make it seem like she did (and failed to do so)

adora is now in a supposedly "happy relationship" with her own abuser and sister, while both didn't at least got therapy BEFORE that.

catra didn't need a romance with her victim in order to be happy. she simply needed time to HEAL, just like adora. "but can't they heal as a couple?" no. it just doesn't work like that. you can't love someone else without fully loving yourself first.

NEXT:

"that being said, catra is open to therapy with perfuma, already sees bow and glimmer as besties, says sorry with ease, happily participates on princesses hugs, isn't afraid to show love and care for adora. and that's when a good relationship is born."

catra may be "trying" to be a better person in canon, but she's far from achieving that. you all say "someone needs time to heal before turning into a better person", but then look at catra, whose "redemption arc" was up for half of the last season and applauds it as "the best character development ever". it also doesn't work like that. it doesn't matter how many times catra saves the world if she keeps treating adora like dirt while doing that (guilt tripping, insulting and beating her up, for example).

basically, saying "I'm sorry for everything" once doesn't mean anything if catra, herself, doesn't truly change.

the last tweet of the thread finished with the following sentence:

"kisses and go to therapy"

all i can say is: thanks, op. you too.

[that-ari-blogger]

"Do you want to know a secret?" (The Portal)

I think that the rules of writing are overblown.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things you should and shouldn’t do when telling a story, but those are more guidelines than actual rules.

Case and point, She-Ra is a story predicated on repetition, which shouldn’t be as entertaining as it is. The “bad ending” is effectively another season, which is a unique premise, and a threat that the story absolutely delivers on multiple times.

But, to me at least, the story is enthralling, and keeps me coming back to it. It works, not despite its repetition, but because of it.

Although, that isn’t exactly true. I’ve described the story as cyclical before, but it isn’t entirely. It’s a spiral, because the cycle of abuse is an innately unstable dynamic, and will only end in tragedy if it isn’t broken.

If you don’t want to take my word for this, I give you the season 3 finale, The Portal, which spells out the series’ thesis in about as blunt of a way as is possible.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke, Superman: For The Man Who Has Everything, Justice League Unlimited)

I grew up reading Alan Moore comics, and if you don’t know who that is, I both pity you and envy you. Alan Moore is one of the most misrepresented writers of the modern age, and its entirely his own fault.

Moore is known for writing V For Vendetta, The Killing Joke, and Watchmen, all of which have a distinctly grim tone. He is one of those writers who seems to care more about the story he is telling than how much people enjoy it, and so he usually has a point to make.

Unfortunately, we end up with the Cyber Punk dilemma, in which Alan Moore’s genuinely unrivalled literary talent leads to people really enjoying his stories, which means they unintentionally miss the actual themes of those stories. In the case of Watchmen, this led to people seeing the gore and the violence and the depression and trying to replicate that.

This is where we get The Boys from, shallow sadness and spectacle. If that’s your thing, go for it, but it isn’t mine.

But I bring up Moore in a discussion of She-Ra for a reason, and that is the relentless hope inherent in his writing. In Moore’s stories, hope prevails every single time, with the only exception being extremely subjective. The Killing Joke focuses on the idea that everyone is one bad day away from becoming evil, and that gets proven wrong. Watchmen is about how small humans are and how annihilation changes people, yet the characters are able to find joy and an escape from their trauma, and show kindness to each other even when the sky almost literally falls on their heads.

The Boys isn’t very good as an adaptation of Moore’s themes (In my opinion). If you want one that actually understands the source material, watch The Incredibles, or Justice League Unlimited, or She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

I have praised She-Ra for its animation and pacing, as well as its overarching story, but I think its greatest strength is its humanity. Characters in She-Ra are incredibly fragile, psychologically, and yet they are incredibly resilient.

Catra and Adora’s development gets methodically and efficiently destroyed by Shadow Weaver, and yet Adora becomes a hero and Catra… well, we’ll see how that works out in later seasons.

One of my favourite Moore stories is a superman story from 1985 called For The Man Who Has Everything. This was adapted into an episode of Justice League Unlimited, but I prefer the comic.

The story follows Superman being forced to live out his greatest desire. It doesn’t sound that bad, but the point is that he is kept happy and therefore out of the picture while villains can do villain things. It’s very much a story from its time, and I love it.

Interestingly, however, Superman’s dream takes him back to Krypton, where he isn’t Superman, and he is happy. He has a wife, and a son, and he never lost anything. He can spend time with his parents.

Even with the shenanigans that ensue (because this is a comic), his time in this dream is fun, and relaxing. Until he works out he’s dreaming, and has to let it go. Superman gets the choice of happiness, or duty, and he takes duty.

The scene in which he says goodbye to his “son”, who does not exist and therefore does not matter, is heartbreaking, and if I ever do comic reviews, I’m talking about this one first.

I now turn your gaze to queen Angella, from whose perspective this story is being told.

The episode actually does a bit of a bait and switch with the point of view, convincing its audience that it is about either Glimmer or Bow, and it kind of is, but not entirely.

Angella has everything she could possibly want, her daughter, her husband, her city. There is no war, there is nothing. Everything is perfect.

“This is perfect, my love, but it’s not real. I remember now. I miss you so much, but Glimmer needs my help, and I can’t stay with nothing but memories. Goodbye Micah”

Does this ring any bells?

I want to point out that this is still Catra’s hallucination, the thing that she wants. So why does she want Angella and Glimmer to be happy?

Catra wants Adora, and arguably loves her, but in an extremely dysfunctional way that says "if I can't have her, nobody can". She is petty, and fully the villain in this episode.

So, the way that she gets Adora to be hers is by ensuring that the people who accepted her would have no space for her in their lives. Why would Glimmer want to spend time with Adora? She has her father. Why would Angella accept Adora? She has her family.

What Catra doesn’t understand is that love isn’t transactional, and that these people are genuinely kind and accepting.

There's the idea of "what you are in the dark." The concept of what a person does when there are no consequences. Characters in this episode keep getting moments like this, when they know that they are fading from existence, and are given moments to show their true colours. Entrapta chooses to be grateful, Bow chooses to be reassuring, and Glimmer chooses to be emotional.

The thing that breaks people out of Catra’s reality is the unexpected. Its Catra’s lack of understanding of people that leads to those people being themselves and instinctively breaking free.

Case and point, Angella and Glimmer help Adora, and because this world was completely unprepared for that minour act of kindness, it can’t keep them contained.

Now, I know what scene you are expecting me to talk about, so I’m going to make you wait, and talk about Catra instead.

Catra is the villain of this episode. If it wasn’t for this being set in her mind, she would have zero nuance. By which I mean, everything about her as a character here is done externally, the way she acts makes her seem like a generic, abusive partner.

Because let me be clear about Catra’s actions here. This is abuse, and it is treated as such by the story. The show doesn’t make apologies for her in this episode, or try to justify it here. Subtlety be damned here, Catra is abusive.

And so, I will read her this way, for this episode. We have seen the nuance leading up to this moment, and we will see a redemption arc. But this is Catra at her lowest, and so I will put aside the past and future to examine the present and the present only. Catra is abusive.

There are two ways you could read this drop in subtlety. One, there are parts of this character that you aren’t seeing, left blank. This episode is presenting you with a character and not showing you the whole thing. Or two, this is a character who has been broken by the story, almost as if parts of her have been removed or lost. Catra is now a fragment of her former self.

I wonder if any of this is reflected in her character design.

“If you hadn’t gotten captured, your sword wouldn’t have opened the portal. If you hadn’t gotten the sword and been the world’s worst She-Ra, none of this would have happened. Admit it Adora, the world would still be standing if you had never come through that portal in the first place.”

This hurts Adora because it’s true. Ok that’s unfair, and inaccurate, but it’s not entirely wrong, and that’s the kicker.

Catra isn’t making this up, she’s just leaving out important details. Because of course, if Adora hadn’t been captured, things would have worked out better, but who was it that captured her? Who was it that made the choice to pull the switch? Who was it that destroyed the world out of spite?

Catra blames Adora for her own actions, and that is, once again, abuse. Which is why it’s so satisfying when Adora stands up for herself.

“I didn’t make you pull the switch. I didn’t make you do anything. I didn’t break the world. But I am gonna fix it.”

Hope is relentless.

But I also want to point out the claiming of agency here. Catra was weirdly insightful at the start of her monologue.

“It's always the same with you, Adora. ‘I have to do this. Oh, we have to do that.’”

Adora’s word choice is a flaw. I looked back at the past few seasons and did a word search through the scripts. I don’t think Adora uses the word “want” more than once at all up to this point.

Essentially, Catra sees things, but extrapolates exactly the wrong message from it. It’s almost as if she’s only seeing half of the world, like her vision is impaired or incomplete somehow.

I wonder if that is reflected in her character design.

In any case, Adora frequently says that she “has to” do things. “Need” is also something she says a lot, and this has the effect of making her an extremely passive character in her own story.

Like I said, this is a moment of agency, but the entire story is a story about that agency. The characters are making choices to either get out of or go along with the downward spiral that the tragic form has set out for them. Catra made the choice to follow, but Adora didn’t. Adora’s word choice makes her look like she has made no choice, but a lack of action is still a decision.

So here, when Adora declares she is “gonna fix it", she takes her agency and decides to walk in a different direction.

This reminds me of an earlier episode, that being Promise.

Hey, look at that action. Looks familiar, right?

This is the only episode I found where Adora says she wants something, although her actual wording is “I never wanted to leave you” when talking to Catra. Go figure.

The moment in question was the episode’s namesake.

“It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know? You look out for me, and I look out for you. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other.” “You promise?” “I promise.”

Agency. Adora is making a decision to stay with Catra and protect her. She is knowingly choosing to do something.

It’s telling that the two most prominent times Adora has done this have been to protect people. It’s almost as if she wants to be useful, or helpful, or protective. Almost as if she wants to be wanted. It would seem Adora is just as addicted to the highs of Shadow Weaver’s programming as Catra, she just has a better support group.

Although this isn’t a full victory, she doesn’t want to save the world, she is just going to, – we still don’t know what Adora wants – this is a partial success. Hold onto that idea, it will come back later.

“Do you want to know a secret? I am a coward. I've always been the queen who stays behind. Micah was the brave one. And then Glimmer, oh, Glimmer. So much like her father. And once again I stayed behind, letting her make the hard choices, letting her be brave for me. I told myself I was being responsible, but, Adora, I was just scared. And then I met you. You inspired us. You inspired me. Not because it was your destiny, but because you never let fear stop you. And now I choose to be brave.”

Queen Angella is voiced by Reshma Shetty. She doesn’t get much praise, but for this monologue, I think she deserves so much more than she got.

In my fourth post about She-Ra, I discussed Adora’s ability to inspire and linked her to Batman, something I stand by to this day.

In universe, She-Ra isn’t important because she’s a warrior. She exists as a leader, to protect people and pull them into a greater tomorrow. She shines a light for others to follow.

That is what happens in The Portal, Adora succeeds not by fighting the enemy, but by being herself. She only becomes She-Ra to destroy the portal at the end. To save Etheria, the giant sword lady isn’t important.

I mentioned earlier that humans are fragile and resilient at the same time, and I give you Angella as evidence for that claim. Here is someone who has lost her husband, and makes decisions based on that fear and trauma. But when push comes to shove, the fear is secondary.

Reality falling apart lets directors get away with true nonsense. Micah's staff has no reason to be here, other than the fact that it makes a phenomenal metaphor for Angella's trauma. But that's all you need.

Jon Pertwee was the third doctor, and while he isn’t nearly as iconic or influential as some of his predecessors and successors, he did deliver the line that defined the whole series.

“Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.”

I started my discussion of this season by claiming that this is the season in which the characters put a dent the tragic cycle, and I have mentioned several times that the cycle of abuse is unstable. So, here is my thesis.

Catra’s arc fails, not in a story sense, but in a personal one. The idea that every character has a single story arc is something is a specific bugbear of mine, and Catra is kind of my case and point for that. She has a redemption arc up to this point, and she ends up as a villain. Then the story continues and she has to start again and decide where to go next. She has no choice but to move in a different direction from here.

But she tasted redemption already. The crimson wastes gave her a taste of what she is missing, and it offered her an out. It gave her a choice, she made one, and consequences were served. I can’t help but imagine that for the entirety of the next season, she is considering running off to the wastes again.

That idea of consequences comes back with Adora, who makes a good decision, and is rewarded for it. Or rather, she makes a decision to actually do something. Adora becomes an active character, and that is what starts to break the cycle. Because now the motion is halted, and the puppets are pulling the strings.

But, this isn’t a complete victory. Angella is lost, Entrapta and Micah are still gone, none of the villains actually get defeated. For an episode with lasting consequences, not much actually happened.

This episode is big on the fact that this is all a dream, which should destroy the engagement. But it doesn’t. In reality, it preserves the status quo physically, but lets all the characters spontaneously experience character development. The victory of this season is that growth, but it came at a cost.

I want to briefly talk about that final shot, before I go, because this is how you introduce a villain. Sure, the voice acting is impeccable, and the cinematography gives an air of mystery and menace to this threat, but the showstopper is the reveal that this villain can destroy a moon with ease.

You see a fleet of ships, there was no battle here, just a villain showing off for nobody but himself. He gets interrupted by the plot, and he’s busy DESTROYING A MOON.

Horde Prime is f***ing terrifying.

This scene is in this episode too. It's meant to show how reality is falling apart, but I actually have a reading of why it's here. I think Catra wanted to preserve who Adora was, hence why she is the source of all the paradoxes. But Catra doesn't understand that Mara's legacy and Razz's teaching are a big part of Adora.

Final Thoughts

I’m going to talk about the implications for later seasons for a moment here, so if you’re avoiding spoilers, now you know.

I think Catra being the villain here makes her redemption so much more compelling, because she actually needs it. There is a difference between this and, for example, Hunter from The Owl House, who doesn’t really need redemption because he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Catra here has very much done wrong and is evil as defined by the show. But the show’s message is that anyone can change, and that the cycle of abuse isn’t set in stone.

So, Catra will redeem herself, and she will struggle, and fall back, and try again. Forgive her or not, the redemption is the effort to be better.

Next week (or whenever the next post is released, I have a terrible work schedule), I will be discussing The Coronation, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Thinking of the last paragraph of that previous post:

Catra and Glimmer both have the same great fear, that all their friends will get sick of them, find someone better, and walk away.

But their response to this fear is completely different!

Catra keeps everyone at arms length. After Adora "leaves", Catra is so hurt that she refuses to do any kind of close friendship. She doesn't let Scorpia or Entrapta in. Then, when all of Catra's friends have walked away, she panicks. She wants to cling onto what few connections she has left, but there's still that side of her which refuses to show vulnerability. So she pulls in Lonnie and friends, and lashes back out at them. It's contradictory and painful and Catra doesn't understand it.

Glimmer, meanwhile, holds onto her friends as tightly as possible. She thinks that if she lets them stray far enough, they'll never come back! She likes being in charge of their missions and engagements, she likes being active and having purpose, she loves friendship affirming activities like sleepovers and parties, and to see her friends living their lives without her feels like they have already moved on from her.

This is how she felt at the start of season 4, when Bow and Glimmer were going on adventures and having parties without her, when they weren't letting her be involved in their lives. So Glimmer responded a few ways. First of all, she barged her way back in! She refused to be a passive actor, she wanted to be with her friends. But things didn't return to how they were - they were upset at her, for doing things without talking to them first. So, dejected, Glimmer started pushing them away - it seemed like everything her friends wanted her to do was painful for her, but doing something to validate herself was causing them to be mad. And Glimmer interpreted this, in her mental state, as Adora wanting to be in control. She couldn't see that Adora felt responsible for her mother's death. She rubbed that wound in, several times, without realising it, but once she did she couldn't apologise, because again that would mean admitting fault for all their other interactions, and Glimmer wasn't ready to do that. She was dealing with grief and inadequacy.

Basically Glimmer and Catra had different initial reactions to the same emotion, but eventually they wrapped around to behaving the same way.

[manic-sapphic]

catra season 4 - moments she couldn't fake it

and choosing to step out from behind the rubble after they were teleported onto prime's ship just in time to save glimmer's life. and buy time for the rest of etheria, too. i love that she walks over and stands beside glimmer, facing prime, who keeps his hand on glimmer's face the whole time catra's talking. you can tell she already knows this guy is reeeal bad news and is tryna think on her feet to convince him to back off for as long as she can.

i definitely think the whole move she made there was one of very intentional protection - at the time, i'd guess it was mostly cause glimmer was one of adora's best friends - and let's be real, she'd been regretting how much she hurt adora throughout most of season 4 and hating herself for it but tryna mask it and convince herself she'd feel better if she could just finally win.

but then when they were, she was still miserable. so, after feeling sick and tired of hurting adora for so long, she puts a pause on prime murdering glimmer right then and there, then likely turning to etheria to do what she later watches him doing on another planet through one of the windows of his flagship - blasting the whole place to bits until it would be left an uninhabited wasteland.

i don't think she had all her shit figured out yet, not even close, but she invited glimmer to end her life when she found her in the fright zone, her ability to deceive herself completely shattered and the reality of just how horribly she'd ruined her own life - the ripple effects of which hurt so many others as well, particularly adora, who DT just forced some painful truths about out from the depths of catra's mind, where she'd done her best to bury them.

she hadn't even had the time to fully process all of that before accidentally ending up aboard prime's ship w glimmer. she's not quite there yet, but you can tell her mind is on its way. she ends up bonding w glimmer cause that's her true nature, one she just doesn't have the willpower to keep suppressing anymore. even prime calls her out for having pity for her, but eventually i think she even grows to enjoy visiting her and sees why she and adora are friends, probably racked w guilt and regret thinking that if only she'd gone w adora, she could've been one of those friends too.

but knowing where she is and all the various circumstances of their situation, that chance is lost to her forever. but she realizes that doesn't mean it has to be lost for everybody else. so she saves glimmer, and by extension, not just everyone who's on their way to try and rescue her, but hopefully all of etheria and even the universe by keeping adora and the others away so they'll have the chance to try and take prime down.

she sacrifices herself saying it's just for adora, but i get the feeling she was also doing it for anyone and everyone who it might hopefully save, so desperate to do anything she could possibly manage, wanting so badly to do whatever she could to make up for trying to destroy everything with the portal and all the other harm she'd caused etheria. cause that was never really her or what she wanted, but she could never go back and change what she'd done or have what she wants, and she didn't feel like she deserved to anyway. so she chose to make her final act hers. what she really wanted for everyone. and yeah, especially adora.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

another theme between spop and gravity falls that i want to point out is one of the characters being shelved for most of the series, and revealed to be alive towards the end. Micah and Ford.

only difference being:

1. Foreshadowing

from the first episode, we see that Stan has some sort of a secret and that he's working towards something.

and throughout the series, we get hints that indicate the existence of a twin brother, one episode even straight up SHOWS Ford (but viewers were led to believe it was Stan).

Micah, on the other hand? the only scene that could be proof of him being alive is during the fake reality in s3 finale.

Micah: Angie, Angella wait! I'm not-

people assume that Micah was trying to tell Angella that he's not dead, but we have no way of knowing for sure. it could have been anything.

so basically, there's no foreshadowing that Micah was alive and i'm pretty darn sure that the writers only wrote him in so that the viewers would forget about Catra killing Angella. Glimmer just needs one of her parents, it's not important which one.

but that's just before. what about after? do these characters have any importance after they are finally revealed to be alive?

2. Plot Relevance

even before the big reveal, Ford was a very important part of the plot. he was the mysterious author of the journals, he was the missing puzzle piece in Stan's life, his connection with Bill was clearly seen in the structure of Mystery Shack.

and after he emerges from the rift, he is even more relevant to the plot. especially because of his history with Bill and his knowledge about the supernatural. even though Stan is the one who defeats Bill in the end, it could not have been done without Ford.

not to mention, his relationship with Stan is essential to the plot. they are a direct parallel to Mabel and Dipper, and the entire series is about familial relationships.

the show just wouldn't be the same without Ford, because he was always one of the main characters, even before he was officially introduced as a character.

and how about Micah? he literally plays no role in the narrative after he is introduced.

one similarity between Ford and Micah is that they were both stranded in an unfamiliar place for years, with no connection to humanity.

but the difference is that while this is used for comedic purposes with Ford, it is also given enough emotional importance, especially when it came to his trust issues and his relationship with Stan.

whereas with Micah, it is solely used for comedic purposes and we never see how being forced to survive on a deserted deadly island has affected Micah's psyche or his relationship with people.

coming back to my point, Micah doesn't even seem all that bothered after learning that Angella is dead. he is shocked and sad for a moment, and then that is completely forgotten.

reconnecting with Glimmer? everything is settled with just one generic emotional speech and a hug.

reconnecting with his sister, Castaspella? barely touched upon.

like Ford, Micah had history with a master manipulator - Shadow Weaver. they could have expanded on this, shown us how Shadow Weaver's treatment of Micah had an impact on him.

but no, apart from him being all "you can't trust Shadow Weaver!" he provides no new insight. if anything, he just got in the way of Shadow Weaver trying to do something good for once.

other than that, he's just a silly goofy dad who wants to bond with his daughter. that's it. he has absolutely no relevance to the plot other than making a fool out of himself, and kind of forming a connection with Frosta.

we're supposed to believe that Micah was this powerful sorcerer and the king of Brightmoon, when even the writers don't give him the respect that he deserves.

newsflash: you can make a character funny and important to the plot. Ford had his fair share of comedic bits, but that didn't take away from his emotional moments and his role in the narrative.

[professional-bulshitter]

oh she-ra and the princesses of power, why are you so tragic and why am I so invested already?? it's the second episode of the show and there comes what I believe will be the central conflict in Adora and catra's relationship which arises from their inability to view the space from which the other is coming from so that at least one of them can attempt to arrive at a middle ground.

BECAUSE catra views everything as absolutes, in the way that it doesn't matter to her what happens to anyone or what she has to do as long as the people she cares about are safe and with her and constructs her understanding through a 'Us vs the World' lens wherein the world is in direct opposition till they work to bend it to the way they want

BUT Adora on the other hand, is more of a full picture person wherein she cares, and about everything indiscriminately in the manner that her understanding is constructed through a 'Us with the World' lens wherein ahe wants to work with the world and preserve things

AND AND it's so tragic because fundamentally they both want to be together, just in the way that they construct their worldviews gets in the way, which can be seen to be in direct opposition. And it's worse, because to catra, Adora has just thrown everything away, everything they had and could be to pursue and stay w people that she's known for less than a week which is a personal betrayal but to Adora, catra has destroyed all Adora knew her as, as she talks about how she doesn't care what she has to do in order for them to be together and in charge and AND AND.

It's a betrayal from both the sides and there's nothing any of them can do about it (at least rn, I'm v v v v v v early in the show to be able to tell/guess/predict w any accuracy)

[n7punk]

Unhinged Instagram Lives Era Fic Notes:

Ok these are small because I TRIED to just put everything in the Author’s notes because it wasn’t supposed to be a “real” project 😭 but I’ve got a few things to say about UILE.

Playlist is just The Sex Was Good Until It Wasn't album by XANA.

Chapter 1:

⦁ Catra was planning to end up with somebody at the end of the night and Adora was lowkey her top choice, so she texted her when she decided she was done with the party she was at and hadn’t found anything else she wanted to do.

⦁ Catra just straight up misheard Adora in chapter 1 and because she never asks she literally never finds out she didn’t say kitten

Chapter 2:

⦁ I swear Catra really isn’t an alcoholic, she just doesn’t mind alcohol, is around it constantly, and has people buying her drinks in addition to having plenty money on hand, so she found she was doing it a lot and realized she needed to be more intentional about it when discussing it with her therapist.

⦁ Not that it literally ever comes up or matters, but Faith’s sister played drums on the Grammy-winning album.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Catra was kinda wrong about how Adora’s management would feel about their connection, so it really wasn't an issue for them to come out, especially because Adora was transitioning her image to include more… well more Catra vibes, if we’re honest, which she called maturity in almost the opposite way Catra’s music was becoming more mature. Adora was getting freer and more horny, while Catra was getting happier and more responsible, but overall Adora’s image didn’t change nearly as much as Catra’s did, and even Catra’s was a gradual shift.

⦁ So it was supposed to be a one shot. Then I had the idea for chapter two and was like fuck ittt. Then I had the idea for chapters 3 and 4 and I was like cool good ending 👍 So that’s lowkey where I consider the end of the fic, but my brain wouldn’t shut up, which is how chapter 5 happened even though I consider 4 a solid ending. And Chapter 6 oh my god I swear. I need to stop thinking about this fic at 1AM.

Chapter 4:

⦁ Adora’s parents are dead, Mara took her in as a kid but she’s just a few years older and it was hard on everybody involved. Also, her full name is Grayskull, management just thought that was too “hardcore” for her genre so they shortened it, and even though her last name does mean something to her unlike Catra, Adora ended up liking that distance between what the public owned of her and her private life.

⦁ Catra’s fans are used to and fond of her antics. She calls it living life to the fullest in interviews and she’s not getting into a lot of controversies or breaking the law (at least not laws that matter) so it really isn’t going to affect her appeal either way if she shifts away from it, but it’ll make some people feel old when she eventually gets asked about cutting back the partying an interview. Other people will say it’s about time.

⦁ When Catra does get into controversies it’s usually shit like blowing someone off, being unafraid to insult someone she feels deserves it, or taking over a party like she did the bar. That’s the modern day rockstar stuff, which is a marketing term she doesn’t use herself to the public but that definitely comes up in a lot of coverage of her.

⦁ Conversely, Adora tries to keep her life private and she’s astonishingly successful given her numbers but stuff spills out, mostly in her dating life, because it was a little messy pre-Catra. She did earnestly attempt some relationships, but they were failed attempts and that left some messy exes.

⦁ Catra hasn’t like, actually had sex in public, but there’s definitely been some extremely horny making out in front of people at clubs and exchanges that people with shame would keep behind closed doors. Despite all outward appearances, Catra needs a safe environment to feel comfortable having sex, so she has some standards, she just tries to seem like she doesn’t.

Chapter 5:

⦁ Normally I headcanon Catra as having a really sharp memory for Pain reasons but for both trauma and sobriety reasons she really doesn’t remember much of her burn-down year, which is when she and An dated, and she meets a lot of people literally every week, so at a certain part they get away from her.

"Chapter" 6:

⦁ “lake at the bottom or our river” is a XANA lyric and “unhappy in Manhattan” is a Chappell referenced queen you SERVED at the VMAs.

⦁ I did the capitalizations purposefully here with CATRA used when talking about her music and Catra used when referring to her as a person.

⦁ When I first wrote An I was not intending this bonus scene to exist but it didn’t make sense to invent another ex for it, so I just gave An a really, really bad day. The meltdown was mostly about everything else happening in her life, honestly, but when she saw she was being filmed she assumed she was recognized because of that and she snapped. I support women’s wrongs she was justified.

⦁ Catra and Adora’s fans do, generally, support their relationship. Both of them have come up with ways to call the other toxic so those subsets always exist, but this post really was about an outlier situation that got blown out of proportion on stan twt and wouldn’t have been that big of a deal/worth a post if the 7/11 incident hadn’t happened. I just really like r/HobbyDrama (when it’s good).

⦁ I love how extremely obvious “Hardcore CATRA stan’s” bias is when describing Catra versus Adora lol.

⦁ The link goes to the photo on Tumblr, but if you actually searched for the Twitter image url listed it would take you toa video of Megan thee Stallion at the VMAs. And the link… well c’mon yall I was goofing :3c

⦁ Lonnie made the pie chart Catra ended up posting to make fun of her while they were working on her latest album. Catra hasn’t actually fact-checked it so it’s wrong in some regards but close enough. It’s also a pie chart pulled directly from my writing tracking spreadsheet, though I manipulated some of the values first. Catra would Not have gone to the effort of making this, the only reason she replied at all is because Lonnie sent it to her literally last week and she thought it was funny, and also wanted the (small subset) who were bitter about her finding happiness to get ratio’d appropriately. It bothers her when people try to make Adora out to be toxic, that’s HER girl, excuse you.

⦁ There’s always that one annoying comment at the bottom of the post that then totally unrelated discourse breaks out in the replies on and that’s what happened with that last comment. Also jjaj10 is for Aly & AJ’s recent 10 year album anniversary this summer.

⦁ Catra goes for the slightly subtler “GOD.DESS” title for her next album (her albums are all stylized in all caps) which is mostly about how fucking amazing her or Adora are in various respects (include sex) with a few “bad bitches have bad days too” moments (Megan the Stallion you are iconic). The cover art is centered on Adora, actually, who’s sitting on their sex bench dykespreading in pants and a tight tank top showing off her arm muscles and serving face to the camera while Catra drapes over her wearing black leather and posed with her leg slipping between Adora’s. Catra's leather outfit is the same one she's then described to be wearing in the bonus chapter 7 (hi from the future). It’s subtle but the kink people in their fandoms immediately identify this photo was taken in a Very Private room in their home and once they say it everybody knows that’s not a workout bench even though tbh it looks like one in the shot. They knew that was going to happen or they wouldn’t have done it, Catra literally has an S&M-type song on the album. They’re really just living their best lives at this point.

⦁ It is not… impossible that I add to this fic more in the future, and if so it would be tacked on the end but could conceivably by non-linear, i.e. scenes taking place during or before the main fic itself and not just following it.

⦁ I used a modified version of this public work skin for the reddit post.

And now, to humiliate me, here is a list of sentences that were supposed to be the last sentence of the fic when I wrote them (all of which are the final sentence of their respective final scene):

CH1: “Maybe she will release the song after all.” [next to last scene] (then I started writing in the notes that they did do the jam session, etc, and I realized I should just put that in the fucking fic)

CH1: “If Adora wants to put that song they wrote together on the radio, she’ll certainly see Catra in her bed a lot more frequently if only because Catra will get a constant reminder of what she sounds like when she’s moaning for her.” [last scene] (okay it’s a completed one-shot now, cool, what’s that, it’s a party scene coming in with a steel chair-)

CH2: “Maybe her therapist will be proud enough to make up for the disappointment of the drink.” [last scene] (ok two chapters for fun, if I get more ideas maybe- shit I already have more ideas)

CH3: “Maybe Catra wants to know what it would actually be like.” [last scene] (hey that’s a nice wrap-up point. Lol I bet Adora’s introduction to Catra’s scene is- fuck here we go)

CH4: “It’s somebody else’s loss if they don’t like what that does for her.” [last scene]

CH5: “Not when she’s coming home to her arms every night.” [first scene] (ok this one’s interesting because I very quickly had the idea for the Adora interview because I looooooove writing interview scenes after the cat’s out of the bag so originally, I tacked that onto the end of the chapter, and then I had more ideas and separated the interview and the new scenes into their own thing)

CH5: “Faith can stay mad they’re having amazing sex and putting out chart-toppers.” [last scene] (again the fic was supposed to be DONE but I wrote this right before bed and as I was lying there not falling asleep I wrote the stupid hobbydrama post in my head and just. Sighed and picked up my phone to take notes)

And then, finally, the actual final sentence at the end of Chapter 6. I’m exhausting even to myself.

[catras-breakup-song]

something that i want to criticize as someone who loves the show dearly more than any other is how it handles shadow weaver later on, and i'm not talking about her sacrifice in the finale because that's been discussed plenty of times already.

i'm talking about two other events:

when double trouble plays out their iconic scene of tearing catra down during the eleventh hour and giving her a much-needed wake-up call, they portray shadow weaver in a way that blames catra for her abuse. they imply that she's the problem in that relationship, which doesn't sit well with me considering she's one of the few people that catra had every right to treat poorly and retaliate against in the way she did.

[as shadow weaver] "they didn't believe in you." [as default form] "but did you ever stop to think maybe they're not the problem? it's you. you drive them away, wildcat."

EDIT: i suggest you read this, or at least the first four paragraphs!

2. when shadow weaver falsely comforts adora about making the right choice to forget about catra and focus on her mission as a martyr, adora retorts that she's going to destroy the heart of etheria, but not to please shadow weaver. my issue here is that shadow weaver is the type of character where it doesn't matter why adora is doing something she's been manipulated into doing, just that she is doing it. at the end of the day, she's been successfully programmed to be a useful tool first and a human second, whether for good or evil. it means she never unlearned what's been ingrained in her mind from day one that whatever she wants for herself doesn't matter, and her purpose has been set without her input. adora's story would've ended lacking an identity just as shadow weaver planned if mara and catra hadn't reminded her that she deserves to be loved and have a future.

"keep telling yourself that. i'm going to take the failsafe to the heart, and i'm going to save etheria. but I am not doing it for you. i'll do everything i can to make sure you never get your hands on the magic."

i love shadow weaver as a character. i think she's a fascinating villain who adds so much to the story. i can acknowledge that she's a horrible person who could never be forgiven (as opposed to redeemed, but that's a different story) and still enjoy the way she's written. in fact, the way she herself was written is not the problem here since these were not her quotes at all. it was other characters who solidified her power, albeit unintentionally, that made me uncomfortable.

i won't be putting this in the typical sp0p cr1t1c4l tags, simply because this is a genuine critique from a she-ra fan and i don't fuck with antis who just hate the show.