#catra & shadow weaver

[cletusthurstonbeauregard]

another old-account exhumation, for those who missed it the first time.

[sharrkbaiitcartoonz]

I did it hehe

[xenaisnumber1]

I've wondered why Glimmer was so quick to forgive Catra.

But then I realized that she experienced Shadow Weaver's manipulation herself. You see Shadow Weaver do the same thing that she did to Adora and Catra to get what she wants. And after Glimmer mom has just died she more susceptible to Shadow Weaver influence.

And what Shadow Weaver does to Catra that she has no doubt done before.

And after Glimmer realized that Shadow Weaver used her, she has to realize that Catra experienced worse with Shadow Weaver, which is why she is the way she is.

And the fact Catra both saves her and is actively trying to change makes it easy for her to forgive Catra. And you have to wonder if the reason why Glimmer was able to resist Shadow Weaver influence more than the other two was because she actually knows what a mother's love feels like.

[landofanimes]

She-ra and the Princesses of Power

Posters

[gashh72]

Today, I come with a sketch👀

I prefer not to leave you waiting for too long while I'm in the process of creating something different my friends

[yourhighness6]

Shadow Weaver: I have raised Catra and Adora to be so strong

Glimmer: You fucked up some perfectly good lesbians is what you did. Look at them. They've got anxiety.

[catboymoments]

Thinking about how Hunter was probably so touch starved he sought out any comforting touch he could get even if it was just manipulation (I’m in the trenches)

HE’S JUST A BOY!!!!! HE WANTED TO BE LOVED!!

[rainbowtiedx]

last part! ty for the support on these <3

[pan-catra]

Shadow Weaver seeing Glimmer not as her own person but rather as a version of Micah that didn’t fail her ohhhhhhh i love the fucked up mentor/mentee dynamics in this show.

[sappho-biohazard]

Catra being told at the age of 6 by shadow weaver that the only reason she was kept around was because Adora was fond of her. A little girl is being told by her mother figure that her entire existence is conditional around another person’s affection of her, that her value is measured by how much she’s wanted by that person, that worth is defined by that relationship, that her survival depends on that relationship, the literal difference between life and death for her depends on that relationship.

The fact that this reflects the reality of so many women for so many centuries, how their worth in a patriarchal society is defined by their relationship to others (mostly men) and the enactment of their roles as wives or daughters. How their safety and survival depended on those relationships and how the loss of them meant danger and even death. Which is exactly what happened with Catra. She wasn’t treated that well before when Adora was around, but there were still some limits, soldiers would apologise to her due to her relationship to adora, but then adora left and she wasn’t around to protect her anymore. Catra’s literal lifeline was gone, and so was her safety and worth. Catra spends the entirety of show trying to reclaim that safety and worth, by making a name of herself, by carving a place for herself, by establishing her value and independence and gaining recognition as her own person instead of another person’s accessory or shadow or extension.

[mdantics]

SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER SEASON 1 (BUT BAD)

make sure to also check out the youtube upload!

[manic-sapphic]

it's so crazy to think catra coulda sliced sw's face into quarters right here if she wanted to - but it was never about that. it's sad that all she hoped this would do is prove to sw that she had most certainly not

"learned nothing" from her.

after her tantrum, hordak wouldn't gaf if catra killed sw right here. and she most certainly was capable. but she didn't wanna.

cause - she. is. not. like. shadow. weaver.

catra only ever grasped at power in hopes it might prove her worth - and most significantly, her self-worth. but was trying to achieve it the only way she'd ever been taught to - & told was the only way someone like her could hope to.

and it ended up making her so miserable. it broke her.

shadow weaver though? sw just loved power. i don't know that it ever fed into any feeling of self-worth.. i don't know that sw ever cared about even having a sense of self-worth or feeling that her life meant something; all that i read her as is a character that loves nothing, not even herself -

just. power.

and catra just loved adora and couldn't figure out how to stop.

[sharrkbaiitcartoonz]

Catra (and one Adora) doodles

Eat, my children.

[azulaslighting]

she ra characters on twitter pt.2

pt.1

[thestargayzingetherian]

She-Ra - What If Catra left the Horde and Adora stayed behind?

Okay so this started out as a reply to an ask @catras-breakup-song got about this question, but it got so long and I've been wanting to make big long ass discussion posts about these various canon adjacent or canon divergent topics anyway.

I will hopefully be making a lot more of these posts if this ends up doing really well.

Anyway, for our first one, we have what if Catra left the Horde and Adora stayed, a very popular AU concept I see going around. Personally, I see a few options for this, none of them are going to be any fun for Adora because well... if Adora stayed in the Horde, she's not going to leave. She was fully into the Horde propaganda and without Catra there... she's going to be so much worse.

Do let me know if you want me to make full fics out of these ideas, since that's kinda partly why I'm making posts like this. Also I might reblog these again in the future if I come up with any more potential options.

Also while the ideas might have some overlap, I'm gonna try my best to make each one have some sort of unique gist going for them.

Option 1 - Catra leaves but Adora stays in the Horde, Adora isn't She-Ra

Catra would finally steel herself to leave the Horde after getting hurt by Shadow Weaver far too many times. She hates that Adora is so dumb and she can't see the Horde isn't right for either of them. It takes all of her mental strength due to Shadow Weaver's abuse but eventually she leaves.

Catra would probably not join the rebellion in this version. Just because she hates the Horde, doesn't mean she's suddenly going to want to take them down. No, she'd probably make her way to the Crimson Waste and do the outlaw stuff there really early.

As for Adora, she'd be hurt by Catra leaving her and with her best friend gone, fully buries herself in being the best Horde soldier she can be and eventually is promoted to Force Captain, a ruthless general of the Horde armies.

Sometime later, Catra, now an outlaw in the Crimson waste, is minding her own business when a squad of Horde tanks move into the town she's currently staying in, with orders from Shadow Weaver to reduce it to rubble so the Horde can mine the area. When Catra sees the commander of the tanks... she sees a familiar blonde now wearing Horde Armour giving orders to her troops.

Option 1.2 - Catra does join the rebellion.

Like in option 1, Catra decides to leave the Horde of her own free will. Shortly after leaving the Fright Zone, Catra speeds through the whispering woods... and bumps into Bow and Glimmer. The two of them capture her, but Catra ends up strangely bonding with the two, Glimmer reminding her a lot of Adora. Catra intially wants to just leave the two, thinking she'll be better off on her own, but Glimmer sees how sad Catra is.

She offers to take her to Brightmoon, at least for a while so she can get back on her feet. Surprised at Glimmer's compassion, Catra agrees and goes with her to Brightmoon. Catra keeps her former Horde identiy to herself for a while, but before she can leave, she hears something from Glimmer about a new, very ruthless Force Captain who recently laid waste to the nearby town of Thaymor. In particular... the Force Captain was a young blonde woman.

Catra offers to go with Glimmer to find this Force Captain before she strikes another civilian town. Glimmer agrees and Catra goes with her and Bow to another town under seige from the Horde... and there, she comes face to face with Adora again.

Option 1.25 Catra becomes She-Ra

Like in the previous one, Catra ends up in the whispering woods... and it's there she discovers the She-Ra sword for herself. But since it won't do anyting for her, it's just a regular sword. She uses it to help save Glimmer and Bow from a rampaging monster in the woods and figures it might come in handy as a personal weapon.

Bow, fascinated by the sword, wants to study it as a peice of First One's tech. However... he finds that no matter what he does, the sword doesn't work and seems to be just a regular old sword, albiet one that's gold and with a silvery-blue blade.

When Adora is promoted to Force Captain, she is ordered to take command of the Horde's advancement towards Brightmoon, laying seige to the nearby towns. After Catra hears that Adora is in command, she comes out to Queen Angella about her time in the Horde and asks to be the one to be sent after Adora, thinking she can maybe reason with her old friend.

Angella agrees and Catra is sent out with Glimmer and Bow to the town Adora is attacking. Catra tries to reason with Adora, thinking she must see what she's been doing is wrong. Adora... doesn't care. Ever since Catra left and broke her heart, she's fully dedicated herself to the Horde cause.

Catra tries to fight Adora with her sword and during the fight, Adora touches the sword... and it starts glowing. Realising that something Adora has done must have activated it, Catra grabs the sword back... and is transformed into She-Ra.

Using her new powers, Catra is able to easily defeat Adora's troops. She has Adora at her mercy, wanting to take her prisoner... but a part of her just can't, a part of her still sees Adora as her friend and lets her go.

Adora growls at Catra, swearing revenge and wanting to claim the power of She-Ra for herself and for the Horde. And thus, Catra decides to use her powers to fight for the Rebellion, realising this is what she should have done from the moment she left.

Option 2 - Catra Leaves the Horde and Adora stays, Adora is She-Ra

One night, Catra tries to leave the Horde, tired of Shadow Weaver's abuse, tired of Adora just taking it. Adora finds her right as she's about to leave and the two get into an arguement. Catra eventually just leaves and Adora chases after her, clinging onto Catra's Horde Skiff.

However, the Skiff crashes in the Whispering Woods and Adora and Catra end up seperated. Adora, desperate to find her friend, searches for her, but to no avail... but she is soon led to a sword glowing in the woods and two rebels named Glimmer and Bow. Unlike in the main timeline, Adora is only focused on Catra, not her visions on the sword and thus, when she becomes She-Ra, she doesn't join the rebellion. Instead, she takes the sword... and her two new rebel prisoners, back to the Fright Zone.

Shortly after leaving the Horde, Catra finds herself in a kingdom named Plumeria. She isn't sure how she ended up there, but it seems like a nice place, even if she knows she probably won't be staying there. That all changes though, when the Horde suddenly attacks Plumeria... and Catra sees the leader of the attack is none other than Adora, now a golden armoured warrior. She also notices a new recruit among her ranks, a Pink-haired princess with some kind of sparkly magic and an dark-skinned Archer with a variety of trick arrows.

The Kingdom's princess, Perfuma, does her best to hold Adora and her troops back, but Adora is easily able to overwhelm Perfuma. Realising she can't just sit back and do nothing, Catra saves Perfuma's life and Catra recognises that Glimmer and Bow are clearly under some kind of mind control, sensing Shadow Weaver's magic aura around them.

Catra takes Perfuma with her, knowing that Plumeria is lost. The two flee their way to Brightmoon, where Queen Angella is reforming the previously disbanded Princess Alliance to counter the threat of She-Ra... as well as her own brainwashed daughter. Catra decides to offer the rebellion her services, somehow feeling in her gut that this is all her fault.

Option 3 - Catra Leaves the Horde and Adora stays, Shadow Weaver mind wipes Adora.

In this scenario, similar to option two, Adora catches Catra before she can leave, but is unable to stop her. In this version though, Adora isn't able to chase after Catra... which gives Shadow Weaver a chance to further embed her manipulative tentacles into Adora. She offers the blonde to take the pain away... and Adora accepts.

In this timeline, Catra has made it to the town of Thaymor, planning on leaving at a later point. However, she is caught off guard when the Horde attacks... and they're led by Adora. Catra tries to reason with Adora... but the blonde doesn't recognise her at all.

Heartbroken, Catra is forced to flee while the Horde lay seige to Thaymor. She is filled with so much guilt, knowing that without her, Shadow Weaver was finally able to take control of Adora, erasing Catra from her mind.

Catra spends the next few weeks and months fleeing from place to place, as Adora leads the Horde to victory after victory. She also discovers the She-Ra sword, which Shadow Weaver is able to corrupt with her magic, turning her into quite the forced to be reckoned with.

While on her travels, Catra hears the Princess Alliance is reforming in Brightmoon, to try and fight against the Horde. She is... tempted to join... but whose to say the Princesses would even trust her, especialyl if they found out that the reason for all of this is her fault.

The Horde lay Seige to Brightmoon and all of the Princesses are captured and made prisoners. However, Adora finds that she isn't satisfied with serving Shadow Weaver, knowing the witch is holding her back.

Catching them off guard, Adora takes out both Shadow Weaver and Hordak and seizes the throne of the Horde for herself... but not before Shadow Weaver uses the last of her magic to horribly wound Adora in an explosion that takes herself out.

Adora survives... but barely alive. Fortunately, by this point Entrapta is in the Horde now, Adora having convinced her during her conquest of Dryl. She begs Entrapta to save and she does, Entrapta even getting Hordak to assist.

Sometime later, Adora is reborn as the cybernetic warrior known as Despara, the last shred of her humanity and who she once was gone. Using her new leadership of the Horde, Despara quickly takes over Etheria and starts making plans to use a ship recovered from the Crimson Waste, as well as the countless slaves the Horde now has from the captured kingdoms to construct a fleet of ships. Hordak mentioned he had a brother... Despara might as well take him out too.

Option 4 - Catra is exiled to Beast Island.

This one's a bit different since it's not technically Catra leaving the Horde of her own free will but I think it's worth exploring nonetheless.

In this universe, Shadow Weaver finally has enough of Catra and decides to exile her to Beast Island. In her mind, it's the perfect place to send an unruly animal like Catra. When this happens doesn't really matter. It could be when Catra is just a kid or when she's around her canon age of eighteen.

When Catra ends up on Beast Island, she is intially hurt and heartbroken, missing Adora constantly. Thus, she decides she wont give in to what Shadow Weaver wants. She'll survive. As time goes by, Catra manages to survive on the island... and she soon finds she isn't alone.

A sorcecer named Micah is also there and the two strike up a bond, especically when Micah mentions that Shadow Weaver was once his mentor named Light Spinner. Micah also remarks that Catra reminds him a lot of his daughter Glimmer, who he hasn't seen for so many years. She was barely old enough to walk when the Horde captured and exiled him.

Catra and Micah make a promise, to escape Beast Island together, so Catra can find Adora again and take revenge on Shadow Weaver for what she's done to her... and Micah can be with his family again. The two of them form a plan, to use some of the discarded tech on Beast Island, as well as Micah's magic, to build a raft.

They are soon successful and manage to escape from Beast Island, however, their raft is caught in a storm... fortuantely for them, they are discovered by a sailor named Sea Hawk who gladly and proudly takes them to Salineas, hoping they can make their way to Micah's kingdom of Brightmoon from there.

However, upon making their way to Salineas, Princess Mermista is informed of terrible news. Brightmoon has fallen to the Horde and Queen Angella and her daughter have been captured. Before Catra can do anything... Salineas is then attacked by a Horde fleet... commanded by Adora.

Catra sees Adora and rushes onto the Horde flagship. Adora... is shocked to see Catra again. She had thought Catra had died on Beast Island years ago, Shadow Weaver having not erased her memory like in the previous version since well... she felt no need to. Catra was dealt with in her eyes.

However, as much as she is happy to see Catra... Adora has fully embraced her duty to the Horde. For Catra, her already weird adventure just got a lot more complicated.

===========

And that's the options I have so far! Again, do let me know if you want me to do more of these and if you wanna see these as fics at some point. Hope you enjoy my ideas!

[catras-breakup-song]

i'm watching more AMVs (to no one's surprise) and the similarities between horde prime's "your adora causes you nothing but suffering. don't you want to be free of it?" and shadow weaver's "haven't you hurt each other enough?" are so uncanny, especially with how each of the girls react exactly the same way:

everyone's already discussed years ago about how the forces keeping catra & adora apart are metaphors for homophobia (and horde prime being one for christian cults in general) but frankly SW reminds me of the passive onlookers who "aren't on either side" or "think both sides have a point" and have therefore chosen the side of evil through being complicit. it's a little more obvious when you consider how shadow weaver resides in bright moon (then with the rebellion in the whispering woods hideout) but her "help" is either harmful or comes with a price, as well as in other cases when she just stands by idly and contributes neither good nor bad when she could otherwise wage the war by working for the better (i.e. when she puts herself on the front line at the heart for catra, a particular target of horde prime, as someone who otherwise was not previously at risk; or when she was an ally to the princesses with trying to stop hordak from activating the portal). maybe those examples don't exactly work 1:1 but it gets the metaphor across so it works well enough.