#catra was badly written in s5

[babyspacebatclone]

I was just thinking this weekend about a post I did a touch back, complaining about how up until the second last episode of the series Catra was still verbally complaining that everything was about Shadow Weaver.

And the entire “Well, she’s not a real person” thing came into my head.

And you know what?

That’s what makes me angry!

It’s the show that’s forcing the “fixation on an abusive mother figure” narrative into this mess. It’s the show that’s not letting Catra move on.

Until Catra’s fighting an entire alternate reality battle completely parallel and not actually interacting with Adora’s own climax.

Up until the show says Catra’s plotline is the only canon one now.

Because elsewhere, while Catra’s existential crisising over “Adora loves our mother figure more than she wants to bone me,” the show also remembers the actual plot!!!

Mara calls her out on it! Granted, poorly written to force in the tacked on “[romantic] love is the only thing that fixes things!” plot tumor Season 5 has, but still!!

Adora needs to learn she doesn’t need to sacrifice herself to have worth, that choices where she’s not the first martyr are worth exploring.

You know, the point Angella was trying to make two seasons ago. The point that kinda got muddled, what with the entire traumatizing Adora over Angella sacrificing herself issue.

And the show likes to pretend Catra can at least see the actual Adora climax plotline, over there in the distance.

But the relevant point here is that Catra doesn’t know why Adora is making the sacrifice.

She flip flops in this scene whether Adora is making a choice over all this, revealing the real thing she’s pissy about is that Adora didn’t “choose” Catra.

Why is Catra’s “redemption” supposed to be “Protect Adora from everyone else’s traumatic abusive decisions”??

And this is the text, it’s supposed to be symmetrical to the way Adora rescuing poor abused and traumatized Catra from being possessed and controlled and made the victim from Prime.

And anyone who thinks there is actual parallel between “Catra was mind controlled by the evil overlord she tried to girlboss herself into surviving under, and failed” and “Adora was traumatized by her mother figure for the explicit purpose of taking on the martyr role for the sake of those important to her, and Adora has not had the opportunity to let people deep enough in to fix that what with her second mother figure killing herself in front of Adora and one of her best friends getting corrupted in the depths of their own grief and the very real war they are still fighting”….

…..

Well, they weren’t watching the same Season 4 I’ve been getting recaps from.

(obligatory note: Catra trying to survive Prime and still having issues with SW’s manipulative treatment of her are valid. They’re just not compatible with Adora’s plotline and the character growth she had in previous seasons.)

No matter how much people age gonna scream '"you just can't handle problematic queer girls" at me, I still think SPOP did a steaming garbage job with Catra's arc.

And I'm so fucking tired of explaining that my displeasure for the show's writing regarding Catra's arc doesn't not mean I want my media pure and soft, hate lesbians, hate women, hate cats or whatever else you want to accuse me of.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Outside of Nate and the fandom’s favoritism of her, what is YOUR opinion on Catra?

my opinion of catra is that she's a character who had a lot of potential. i didn't enjoy her character as much as i could have because she reminded me of that shitty person in my life, but she was a very effective villain in the first four seasons. (and yes, she was a VILLAIN, not just an antagonist)

i'll admit it, i loved the portal storyline. i love it when villains go batshit crazy and does something completely unforgivable, i love highkey unsettling psychological horror, i love sci-fi shit that messes with space and time, i love all of it. if s5 never existed, i would have absolutely ADORED the portal sequence (yes, even the parts where catra abuses adora. not because i support abuse but because it's interesting to explore in fiction).

also, i do sympathize with catra a lot. i know it may not seem like it but i can understand a character's struggles while still holding them accountable for their actions. that episode where catra asks shadow weaver what she did to deserve being abused really stuck with me, because it's something a lot of people can relate to, including myself.

and you know, i relate more to adora than catra but i've also taken out my anger on people who didn't deserve it. i don't know if i was abusive, that's for them to say, but i've definitely treated people badly because i was going through some shit. and none of that is justified, i still feel guilty about the way i acted. it would be an asshole move for me to say that i did nothing wrong because i was also abused or because i had a tough childhood. this applies for everyone.

so yeah, catra could have been an iconic villain and even one of my favorite characters if she was written by a better writer.

[adorawasright]

ppl make comparisons between hunter (toh) and catra, but personally i think it makes more sense to compare him with adora.

hunter was also brainwashed into believing he was doing smth good. hunter was the prodigy, the golden guard. but eventually he realizes his entire life was a lie and he runs away. he's also haunted by his origins once he finds out the grim details. not to mention both hunter and adora were, in a way, possessed/corrupted by their abusers (which catra does to adora in s2).

while i definitely don't think h/untlow is as bad as c//a, i do believe it was badly written and in turn it never solved hunter's identity issues bc he had to save willow (a character who was definitely done dirty as well). he ended up looking like another caleb even though we never see him processing it all. similarly, adora's entire character arc of finding out about her bio family is dropped in s5 so they could push c//a.

when i look at all of this, i srsly could never compare hunter to catra. hunter may be snarky but even before his redemption, he was never as terrible as catra. i would say she's more like belos than anything.

[manic-sapphic]

everything's ok when they just stay together damnit lol

maaan tho, it bums me out that it took till s5 for catra to even be vulnerable enough to admit that w adora actually was where she'd always wanted to be but by that point she'd really come to believe it was too late. that there was no going back for her anymore. doesn't help either though that it takes adora till s5 to fully realize how much she actually truly needs catra and always has. i mean literally, "everything will be ok if we just stay together" adora says it back in s3 during "remember" i think, so it seems tbh like she was already starting to feel like she shoulda tried harder to get catra to come w her in the beginning. like, just made sure she knew how important catra was to her and basically drag her damn ass outta the fright zone. but i don't think she tells catra she needs her till failsafe, and i think atm it's just too hard for catra to hear & believe it, despite just how badly she's always wanted to hear it and wants it to be true, cause she's always needed adora too.

and i def think adora's grappling w regrets in a very big way when catra walks out on prime's flagship. like being clad in a horde prime uniform and opening her green eyes wasn't enough of a shock to her system, the totally emotionless "hello, adora" moment just - i feel like it's written all over adora's face right then and there but also during their entire fight and when she's holding catra after her fall - adora looks riddled with guilt and regret seeing what's happened to catra as a direct result of the sacrifice she'd chosen to make for adora. and all after adora left her behind w the horde and chose to follow a false hero's destiny > her and catra's promise to protect each other. but still after years fighting each other, when faced with the thought of adora truly suffering at prime's hands - esp given catra got to see better than any other character first hand just what a freaky creep prime was and prob felt truly horrified at the thought of what he might do to adora - catra chose to act on the promise for what she honestly thought would be her last chance to ever do so. as sw once threatened her with back at the beginning, "then you will suffer the consequences in her place." but yeah, this time catra fully and willingly chose to take that on w prime if it meant adora would stay far away from him.

-"it doesn't matter what you do to me, glimmer is gone and you will never get your hands on adora" ugh her saying that just kmn ok? the determination and passion in her voice as she protecc her would-be wifey, even tho she's aware that it means she's prob gonna be going through some real bad shit real soon. she'd still rather it be her than adora 💔

and just ugh i'm sure realizing that and seeing catra just consumed adora with grief and utter distress. like i don't think she necessarily felt like she never should've left the horde for the rebellion during the whole save the cat incident, but i can clearly hear her just thinking fuckfuckfuuck how did this happen, how did i let it happen, why didn't i drag this stubborn brat w me kicking and screaming when i left, omg omg what do i do now? how do i fix this?? can i fix this??? it's soul-crushing to watch forsure but at least they fully kick prime's ass into oblivion and get the happy ending they both deserve

<3

[cherrytea556]

She ra is an overhyped mess

I do not get how it was praised so much and was apparently the point were she ra got popular or at least had its popularity grow because there was just so much wrong in s5

The characters are either acting out of character, wasted, used for shipping, have no character development or just badly written

The only characters that i can think of that was well written and not wasted was shadow weaver, angella, mara and lighthope. Mara, angella and lighthope story was already finished so they wouldnt be affected by s5's writing. With shadow weaver, they have her still be a villain which she was great at so that's good at least. But that couldnt be said for the other characters because there stories either was brushed off to never be focused on again, badly written or there was just never a story to begin with.

The tonal issues they have in the later episodes of s5 even though were suppose to take this series seriously. She ra always have tonal issues like with princess prom and those episodes in s4 but it hasnt changed in s5 like in perls of peekablue, their acting like its a fun party when its not and taking control has a sideplot of the rebellion gang going to a party like dont you guys have war rn?

Theres this plothole of grayskull because how its explained in return of the frightzone makes no sense, although maybe im wrong, its coming from memory

How they do redemption with catra and hordax-do i even need to explain further? Like both are shit, catra and hordax didnt change in the end. Hordax may be a worse case because some people say that he wasnt even meant to be redeemed but have an arc about finding himself and acceptance which if thats the intent, why tf would you pick the colonizer that took and brainwash children into harming innocent people? Wheres the thought process in that?

And the romance....look im not big on romances, in fact, i dislike romance but even if i like romance, i wouldnt like most of the she ra endgames writing. Catradora is still toxic as catra didnt change and dismisses all that pain she put adora through for 3 years straight. Spinnetossa was okay because they already were togather but it has a questionable moment to say the least and the closure of their arc in s5 is just poorly worded. Seamista barely has any development for their romance to work plus both wouldnt even be that healthy anyway, seahawk disrespects mermistas boundaries and mermista avoids him and is openly irritated by him so them being canon without much development from the two is really jarring and tbh, kinda ick to me. Now as much as i love glimbow and scorfuma, both weren't so well written, glimbow came out of no where while scorfuma only got a bit of development. Doesnt help that theres no slight indication of them being a couple unlike the rest of the ships so it also kind of came out of nowhere for it to be endgame. The only ship that worked was entrapdak because its healthy, their relationship developed and it doesnt even need to show us a big love confession or something because we as the audience can understand that they are in love so it makes sense for them being canon.

Oh and i forgot horde primes plans make less sense overtime, she ra learnt her new powers way too quickly, catra was forgiven way too quickly, the abliesm in launch was handled terribly, catradora is getting worse than i thought it was and all in all was a dumpter fire that for some reason got a golden platter by critics and fans in 2020

Sorry for the rambling, i still dont get how people call she ra almost perfect when s5 proves otherwise and no one in that time era besides those small creators on youtube mentions its obvious flaws. The whole thing makes me face palm

[acephysicskarkat]

The issue with Catra’s redemption arc isn’t anything to do with challenging “redemption through suffering”, it’s that the writing is bad and constantly asserts things about Catra’s character development that the script doesn’t back up.

I’m not just talking about how Catra saying she was sorry in the second episode of the goddamn show, written by the showrunner, plainly didn’t mean anything to her or anyone else, although do bear that in mind just as an example of how S5 is built on clumsy retcons; I’m talking about the whole structure.

For seasons 1-4 and the early parts of S5, Catra is predominantly defined by her selfishness. It is the primary driver of her villainy. It is what makes her so awful to be around. It is the source of her toxicity, her resentment, her possessiveness, her cruelty and her spite.

The “Corridors” flashback portrays her friendship with Adora as toxic and one-sided. She punishes Adora for having a desire for other friends, acts conciliatory and nice when it looks like she’s getting what she wants, and goes right back into Tantrum Mode when Adora proposes a compromise; the only acceptable outcome to Catra is that she gets what she wants.

The plot of “White Out” has her gloating about finally having Adora under her control. Again, there’s no compromise; Catra has to get exactly what she wants, and if that requires taking away Adora’s agency, well, fuck Adora. (Also, this is possibly the biggest, reddest red flag in children’s media, so jot that down.)

Then there’s season 3, where she decides that if Adora has once again gotten something Catra wants, that means Adora has to suffer no matter the cost. Catra’s so caught up in her own personal pain that she has to inflict it on Adora, and who gives a shit about anyone who suffers on the way?

And then there’s Scorpia...look, you get the idea. This is a pattern with S1-S4 Catra. She demands trust, loyalty and support from Scorpia and Hordak while generally refusing to extend any of those herself; she refuses to accept responsibility for her actions and treats her personal pain as though it justifies any cruelty she wishes to undertake; she routinely demands that Adora put Catra’s wants over the needs of others, from the opening two-parter to the season 3 disaster. Even her one good deed towards Adora has selfish overtones, because while she’s helping Adora, she’s also getting rid of a rival; notably, her first qualm with the plan to drag Adora kicking and screaming back to the Horde came when she learned that it would cost her the promotion to Force Captain. There are a couple of moments where she does genuinely selfless things, but the shitty, entitled, possessive selfishness is the main driver of the plot.

And this isn’t, in and of itself, a problem! You could get a genuinely compelling arc out of having Catra confront her selfishness and entitlement and genuinely learn that it’s not all about her.

Unfortunately S5 just kind of says it did that and never actually backs it up. S5 Catra, as written in the actual script, is just as selfish as she always was, the narrative has just stopped caring.

She saves Glimmer not because she’s realised any genuine similarity between them or come to view Glimmer as a friend despite their earlier enmity, but because Glimmer is a convenient token to get something Catra wants.

She spends “Taking Control” sulking that her actions might have consequences in the form of the people she’s hurt being allowed to be upset over that. Her apologies end up so vague and so disconnected from anything she’s actually learned that they ring hollow; they feel like attempts to paper over her actions rather than expressions of genuine sorrow. Wanting to be forgiven isn’t the same thing as genuinely expressing regret, and the show’s attempts to conflate them don’t do this arc any favours.

This is a big, persistent and damning issue, because she still isn’t taking responsibility for her actions. She still blames Adora for fights in which she herself was the aggressor (”that never stopped you before”) and still frames her repeated rejections of Adora’s offers of help and support as Adora “abandoning” her, right up to the series finale. Very little of the harm she’s caused is ever substantively addressed beyond Frosta decking her on general principles and Perfuma being very briefly salty that Catra treated Scorpia like shit.

This problem lasts right up to the finale. When Adora takes the Failsafe, none of Catra’s tantrum feels like it’s got anything to do with Adora’s value as a person independent of what others want from her: she starts out mad that Adora “chose” Shadow Weaver over her, when in fact what Adora’s done is taken the best option from a list of bad options, and eventually admits to Melog that she’s upset Adora doesn’t “want“ Catra the way Catra wants Adora. The main ways Catra presents this centre Catra’s own wants first and foremost: she wants Adora to “choose” her over theoretically Shadow Weaver but practically everyone on Etheria, she wants Adora to give her the relationship she wants. It’s still all about her.

This tells us that Catra has learned nothing. Her tantrum at the end of S5 is exactly the same as her tantrum in “The Sword, Part 2″: Adora has prioritised the lives of innocents over Catra’s wants, and Catra views that as a personal affront. Her character arc has been a parabola that’s left her right where she was at the start, except that she’s now willing to let Adora have other friends so long as those friends are also her friends. (Including the one whose mother is dead because of Catra’s selfish, resentment-driven apocalypse tantrum in S3, which is the elephant in the room that S5 really, really does not want to address.)

Then the narrative tries for the “conscience makes you go back” moment...and fucks it up. Catra doesn’t go back because she’s finally grasped that Adora is a person with her own intrinsic value and deserves to live for her own sake. Catra goes back for one last attempt to get what she wants. She goes back to whitewash her history of controlling, resentful possessiveness as love in the hope that Adora will stay alive for the sake of Catra’s personal desires.

Having Catra go back just in the hope of getting Adora to go out with her ruins both characters’ arcs: it undermines Catra’s arc because she’s gone five seasons without grasping that Adora is a person with autonomy, agency and inner worth, and it undermines Adora’s because after being told that she’s worth more than what she can give to other people, she’s saved by Catra’s demand that Adora give her something.

Frankly, Catra’s redemption arc would have meant a lot more if at some point during it she had genuinely seemed to acknowledge that Adora has worth independent of what Catra wants from her. If instead of whining “you hate me now” she’d accepted that Adora has a right to work through her emotions in her own time and is under no obligation to forgive Catra just because of one Glimmer-shaped bribe. If she’d genuinely acknowledged the harm she’d caused to both the Princess Alliance and the innocent people of Etheria, instead of cracking jokes about it. If she’d accepted the idea that Adora didn’t love her back and tried to save her anyway.

If she’d gotten actual compelling character growth, and not just been fast-tracked through a badly paced redemption arc in order to fill out a shipping grid.

[bluewithpurplepolkadots]

What do you think of SU or Future did you ever finish it?

A looong time ago.

Ultimately the fifth season was still terrible but I feel Future in certain ways did better by it even if there were some issues still. Like some writers had a real make lemonade attitude to what they were given which y’know what they had to work from: kudos to them.

Like the diamonds themselves were still very badly written but Steven actually reacted accordingly honestly which was somewhat gratifying. He didn’t actually like them. Even though the crying from them at the end was ridiculous and made me laugh because Jesus.

Also when they first appeared on screen showing how they changed/were fixing things before Steven went all Godzilla is the most horrifically bad and unconvincing dialogue I’ve ever heard outside of fanfic. Let’s quickly exposit why we don’t deserve/can’t be shattered and our dust scattered throughout the winds if the finale of Season five wasn’t enough. (And it also felt like desperate backtracking on having their crimes have no important long term consequences on other gems long term. I mean, wow. I actually liked there were still signs of corruption on the healed gems but yellow heals the cluster pieces and there’s not an ounce of trauma? No anger or fear? What? The fact she could even fix them at all also feels really cheap).

But like this is also a problem with Steven fixing a shattered Jasper.

There were interesting things in Future though. Like Steven’s mental health, him messing up by holding too tight to his past and him leaving in the end. There’s elements which definitely work for me.

Overall despite some strengths the diamonds were ultimately an unfortunate blot on the whole thing still. It would have been better if they just had been stuck on a bus and not brought back into the plot at all. Just let us forget they exist. Sometimes in long running shows when certain characters were clearly mistakes and you can’t fix them/kill them it’s just what you do.

I feel She Ra and Hordak later kind of solidify for me that there’s a big difference between not liking something and really inexcusably bad writing.

For instance I didn’t like Hordak and the idea of redeeming him. But it was not even half as bad as the diamonds as redemption attempts go in some ways. And She Ra never went there with its equivalent to white diamond: Prime. And thank heavens for that.

It’s very far from perfect and Scorpia got the shaft a lot from Hordak’s past dealings with ther kingdom not looked into more deeply. Just like her feelings kind of got the shaft with Catra but… you know…if they weren’t going to kill him off? It could have been a lot worse. And like at least they didn’t take big hero moments from Adora to lift him up. I’d have personally ended with Hordak being banished if for whatever bizarre reason killing him off via Prime was still off the table but…oh well. It wasn’t me in the writing chair.  I just think he more works as a somewhat tragic villain who dies then one who gets a soft ending. Out of context or even in just knowing S5 Adora driving Prime out is a great moment but when you remember the rest of the show and what he’s done. And Adora and him never had a deep relationship prior to make it that much punchier. So. Ehhh.

At least however  I can, unlike the diamonds, understand his fans and why they exist. His backstory is actually sad and interactions with Prime appropriately horrifying. And like I said above that last scene with Adora IS good when taken alone without any context.

The diamonds were both something I disliked and were terribly written at the same time. Every scene with them trying to be good guys or just before they became them via Steven was awful even when divorced from context. There is nothing good there at all beyond Steven clearly not liking them.

Also Blue Diamond would have been such an amazing villain if she’d been allowed to be.

[golden-redhead]

I am super annoyed with catradora being canon and how it is treated as this representative queer ship, mostly because... well, because it’s badly written. like, it is so, so badly written it hurts. I was a HUGE She-ra fan, I was VERY excited abt s5, I was very supportive of Noelle and the crew, in general I was insanely in love with this cartoon and everything about it and then s5 happened and I... I don’t think I ever fell out of love faster. 

In fact, I don’t think it have ever happened before. But now I have days when I can barely look at anything She-ra related, because it just makes me feel kinda empty. And sad. And, quite frankly, rather angry. 

The way s5 just shoves all the other characters and subplots and conflicts aside to make room for a ship that - if supposed to be canon from the start like Noelle claims - should have had at least one solid season to make it work. I absolutely loved season 4 and to this day I see it as the strongest (well, okay, maybe second strongest...) part of the entire series. But the thing is, if they were really going for the ending we ended up having, season 4 should have been completely re-written. All of the huge plot points introduced in season 4 just get randomly dropped, abandoned or simplified. Entire season 5 revolves around Catra and catradora and all of the other subplots and character arcs have to be shoved aside in order to make it happen and even then it is done so, so poorly. I am certainly not a catradora shipper, but I am actually kind of amazed how catradora shippers can be satisfied with what we got in canon, because, quite frankly, as far as writing goes it was just... bad. A half-assed redemption that should have had so much more time and heart poured into it, instead of insta-forgiveness we ended up getting and Catra barely acknowledging any of the things she’s done and not being even nowhere near being on the right road to recovery. 

One thing that really annoys me is how Noelle tried to brush it off as a story of what happens if you’re that toxic friend. And, you know, as someone who was that friend, as someone who actually was in that position and worked to better herself in order to earn forgiveness and just be a better, healthier person... it ain’t it. 

[paperjamz]

you reblog posts talking about how catadora shippers keep going off on people for likeing glimmadora/glitra and how it's toxic and they should stop and just let people like what they want to like (and that's true) yet you reblog a post and call catra a murderer and abuser and say how catadora it toxic cuz of it in the tags. I'm personally a glitadora shipper and would have been happy with catadora, glimmadora or glitra but that just seems hypocritical to me. (ran out out space 1/2)

Also you completely missed the point of catras arc and how a teenager who went through countless traumatic experiences and almost went insane because of it yet found the strength to try and right her wrongs and work towards becoming a better person and a literal abuser(who is someone like shadow weaver) are not the same like, at all. Not hate btw I love your blog but I just wanted to bring this up. (2/2)

Actually… wanna preface this with the fact that i used to be really big on shipping catradora. That’s taken a whole seat back because of s5 because i just was not prepared for how they handled how catra gets integrated in the group.

like i LOVE catra, she used to be my favorite character in the beginning. I liked her because she was allowed to be emotional and have evil and dark feelings, which just felt really refreshing to see on a female character. The way the show was going too, i was really rooting for her to be happy!! because she just… the world was just so against her, i wanted so bad for things to get better for her. and things did! but…. at the cost of other character’s personalities.

being able to make up for the things you’ve done in the past and becoming a better person is a really nice message to send for people who see themselves in catra but like. season 5 failed to bring the consequences of catra’s actions to her. that’s not at all how things work irl. if you treat people badly irl, theres a chance they won’t forgive you, but everyone in s5? Forgave her immediately?. Honestly if they wanted to have that message written across better, i think s4 should’ve focused more on her trying to be a good person instead of just regretting her actions. Her regret should’ve come across in actions where she does something to reflect her conscience. but it wasn’t, and we just saw Catra falling further and further to a dark path.

but to get back to topic, i really felt like the consequences of catra’s actions were really just pushed aside. catra knew the horde was evil and actively stayed with them. catra manipulated, physically attacked (in a very malicious manner), and just verbally abused adora every step of the way until s4 where they barely had interactions. that was never brought up again. Catra was the reason princess prom was a colossal disaster, literally bombing and almost straight up destroying frosta’s castle?? she got punched for that but then after that, nothing? mermista’s kingdom was destroyed and in flames the last time we saw it, and catra was second in command when that was destroyed. BIG chance she was the one who ordered it to happen. that never gets addressed. we never see the constant verbal abuse and actual coercion by catra of scorpia be addressed (i’m not counting that half-hearted sorry scene :/ ). we never see glimmer getting mad at catra for being essentially the reason why her mother was gone. we never see the consequences of catra’s actions!

so that’s why i don’t really see it as hypocritical, not liking catradora or reblogging things that criticize it. I’m criticizing the ship for all the things it failed to address.

[abigailnussbaum]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, S5

Overall I’d say this was the best season since the first one, and the ending it gives the story is a satisfying and moving one. I really liked how the show gestures back at some canonical She-Ra concepts - the rebels hiding out in the Whispering Woods, for example - while at the same time doing things that are completely outside the original canon’s scope - She-Ra in Space! And I thought the ensemble was well-used, main characters, side characters, and antagonists all getting their own storylines and resolutions in a way that isn’t easy with such a wide cast of characters, but was handled with elegance.

But look, if you’ve read anything I’ve written or tweeted about this show over the last four seasons, you know I have fundamental issues with how it chooses to direct its storytelling and characterization energies. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the concluding season didn’t address most of those issues. A big part of that is that the show I wanted She-Ra to be clearly wasn’t the one Stevenson and her team were making, and that’s fine. But I find it genuinely strange that of the three series that are obvious thematic and emotional successors to Avatar: The Last Airbender - She-Ra, The Legend of Korra, and The Dragon Prince - none of them reach the same heights of plotting and characterization, and at least in She-Ra’s case I think this is rooted in an unwillingness to complicate a rather simplistic central theme. 

(Also, at least part of the problem has to be that the show’s five-season, 52-episode run spanned only seventeen months. Even if you add in the production period for the first season, that’s a truly bonkers schedule that must have told in the depth and complexity of the final product.)

Take Catra, for example. If you’d asked me where I thought her storyline was going before watching the season, I would have said pretty confidently that she was going to get at least some level of redemption story. After all, her situation at the end of S4 perfectly positions her to switch sides by stripping her of all the things she thought she wanted and placing her in a precarious position that she might not be able to talk or manipulate her way out of. The season premiere establishes those facts even further by making Horde Prime a literal monomaniacal monster. And yeah, it’s pretty clever that in a series that places so much emphasis on the importance of friendship as the path towards moral growth, the villain is narcissism personified, a person who has no use for others except as they reflect himself, and subjugate themselves entirely to his will. So it’s not surprising that, finally cut off from any realistic path towards power and made to feel her own vulnerability, Catra would finally start doing some soul-searching and realize how badly she’d treated the people who cared about her. 

(Though if you’ll allow me a snide moment, I can’t help but point out that in the Best Redemption Story Ever, Zuko actually gets all the power and approval he’d thought he wanted before realizing that it means nothing without his honor and self-respect. I think we all know that if Catra had gotten a position of power from Horde Prime, she would have felt no loyalty towards Adora and Etheria, and helped him to conquer them.)

Similarly, I think I would have given you better odds than even that the series would end with some romantic storyline between Catra and Adora. And I don’t want to downplay the importance of depicting a story like that - before the end of the season I found myself wondering why Bow and Glimmer’s romance was being depicted so chastely, before realizing that the writers wanted the first kiss on the show to be between two women. I respect that impulse and the representation the show ends up delivering - we’ve come a long way from Korra and Asami holding hands at the end of their show. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel that the way that the show arrives at this point requires a significant rewriting of Catra’s personality and character arc, not to mention the history of her relationship with Adora.

As the fifth season argues it, the root of Catra’s resentment of Adora is romantic disappointment. She complains that “Adora doesn’t want me. Not the way I want her”, and leaves the team when Adora decides to risk her life by destroying the Heart of Etheria because she takes it as a personal rejection. But this is, to say the least, a massive whitewashing of what we’ve seen of Catra and Adora’s past relationship. In flashbacks, particularly the ones from S4, it’s made clear that even when they were on the same wavelength, Catra and Adora’s friendship was toxic and dysfunctional. Catra may have always loved Adora, but it was a selfish love, one that saw Adora as an instrument for the validation of Catra’s confidence and self-image, and denied her any opportunity for pursuing her own interests and desires. 

There’s room for a story about Catra growing past that selfishness and learning to love generously and openly, of course, but we don’t get that story in S5. When Catra complains that in sacrificing herself for Etheria, Adora is refusing to want things for herself, it’s not an honest character moment. Catra has never cared what Adora wants - in fact, her refusal to acknowledge Adora’s right to make her own choices and take a path in life that left Catra behind has been the crux of their enmity since the series premiere. Having her suddenly change tunes doesn’t feel organic, but like a parachuted-in personality transplant.

To put it back in ATLA terms, Catra was never Zuko. Adora is Zuko - someone raised with bad principles who nevertheless has enough innate compassion, and a powerful moral compass, that with a little support - emotional or magical - they can break through their indoctrination and become a hero. Catra is Azula - obsessed with power, possessed of very little compassion for others, and, most importantly, seriously emotionally unbalanced. I’m not saying someone like that can’t be helped and can’t become a better person, but it takes a great deal more than what the last season of She-Ra has given us.

Meanwhile, if you look at Adora’s storyline, on one level it gives us what I’ve wanted for a while. I’ve complained a lot about how Adora has remained static throughout the middle seasons of the show while other characters - Glimmer, Catra, Scorpia - got character arcs and changed meaningfully. One effect of that has been to create a strange disconnect between the show’s central themes and its main character. In a story that is supposedly all about the importance of friendship and personal connections, the heroine is someone who achieves her heroic destiny by rejecting those connections in favor of a more global morality, and who then had to struggle with balancing her sense of global responsibility with personal attachments - to Glimmer and Bow as much as to Catra.

The fifth season finally circles back to these ideas and places Adora at its center. I thought her conversation with Mara about having the right to be more than She-Ra, and to do more with her life than sacrifice it for others, was a really powerful moment. I just feel like, once again, the foundation wasn’t laid for it. First because Adora’s growth has been mostly ignored during the intervening three seasons, and second because this is a character arc that clashes with the show’s friendship-above-all message in ways that aren’t really acknowledged.

When you think about it, the moments when Adora has been the most herself are the ones when she rejects toxic friendship and stands up for herself - in her confrontations with Catra, especially over the course of the first season, and when she defies Glimmer’s decision to use the Heart of Etheria and the end of S4 and destroys the sword. So to the already complicated issue of where to draw the line between the things you want for yourself and the things you owe others, you add the thorny matter of when to detach yourself from toxic friends who see you only as a means to an end. Except that She-Ra never really grapples with this extra wrinkle - and again, Catra’s hasty personality transplant plays into this, because we get to pretend that the only problem she and Adora ever had was romantic miscommunication.

In a season that is all about putting aside differences and personal grievances to fight for a common cause, there is a refreshing number of instances that remind us that those grievances are still relevant - the fact that nobody will ever really trust Shadow Weaver, for example, or the other princesses calling Entrapta out on her seeming indifference to the consequences of her actions (though in this case, and yet again, Entrapta’s neuroatypicality is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card from taking personal responsibility). Even Glimmer gets to spend a bit of time in the dog house, at the same time that she and Bow work together and save each other’s lives. But once again, when it comes to the main character, we can’t let pesky matters like a lifetime of toxic friendship get in the way of a happy ending in which lesbian love conquers all.

There was a good story to be told here, one that could have easily ended up in the same place as the series actually did. But it required actually delving into the complexity of a character like Adora, and dealing honestly with the problems in her relationship with Catra. She-Ra ends - as it did throughout it run - by choosing to paper over those difficulties in favor of a friendship-conquers-all message that is a great deal less convincing.

(Also, am I wrong or are there a lot of loose ends still? I don’t think we ever find out who Adora was, what Greyskull is, and what She-Ra actually is.)

[clarabosswald]

i binged all of she ra s5 last night spoilers ahead

low points:

the animation. i’ve always had a bit of an issue with the animation in this show... in terms of design, it’s gorgeous. in terms of flow... i often find it lacking. stocky movements, or lip sync that’s off - those are pretty common. and i mean, i get it, they’ve had to get new episodes out in almost no time and i admire the team for creating the product they did at the end. but i really wish they were given more time to polish and refine it. 

the writing, i mean it’s a kids’ show obviously, but when they’ve got pretty much two modes - beautifully nuanced and emotional writing and then... painfully childish writing, then the childish writing REALLY stands out and it’s a bit embarrassing sometimes (micah and frosta’s little arc, for instance). but i get that too. people who’re good with drama very often can’t get comedy quite right. (and comedians are often really good at drama. it’s an odd thing)

the character arcs were done VERY well with the short time given for them to evolve, but i still do wish they were spread over 2 seasons instead of one. especially catra - seeing her change was super satisfying, but toxic life-long habits are SUPER hard to get rid of. and while they did show her struggle with it, i still really wish it was given the time to develop in a more natural way. still, with the time they had, i do think they showed a satisfactory amount of hardship before catra settled as a good guy.

this season was an absolute celebration of lgbt+ ships and identities and at the end i was really disappointed they didn’t make entrapta canonically aspec. it’s very reminiscent of peridot in su..............left JUST ambiguous enough so fans can keep on putting the characters in romantic/sexual ships. and it’s incredibly frustrating to see us getting SO close to actual canon rep for aspec people and then......not hitting the point. when will aspec representation seem important enough for creators to give it to us apsecs?

speaking of entrapta, her early season arc of her difficulties in interpersonal relationships made her......just a bit too unlikable. or rather.....they let it go a bit too far before letting entrapta show how much she DOES care for her friends? it might honestly be realistic, i know, i do, but realistic writing isn’t always the right choice when trying to present a character like this in a positive light, especially in a kids’ show. i’m just glad they only stuck with it for one episode.

i know it’s super silly but............the team’s spacesuits having holes in them for iconic look’s sake, and adora and entrapta’s hair sticking out................ my dudes that’s not how space works. it’s just a quirky thing but seeing how much emphasis was given on the dangers of space. just. yeah i’m a bit nitpicky

the music in the show is good but also.... kind of overused? that might also be a time constraint thing, though - they might have not had the time to write some new pieces. but it was slightly distracting when the emotional high points all used the same emotional track.

high points:

prime ABSOLUTELY felt like a big threat and i LOVED it. he seemed to be a few steps forward up until the end. this show always was REALLY good with its villains and i really admire that, it’s not a common thing in children’s media. speaking of villains, shadow weaver’s arc too was very satisfactory - her internal struggle between her massive thirst for power and her love of magic as a natural phenomenon and wishing to see it free. and chipped!spinnerella was chilling! chipped!scorpia was genuinely scary! chipped!micah was BATSHIT TERRIFYING! just, really good villain writing all around and i LOVE that shit.

speaking of prime’s chips - the mind control threat was REALLY well done, absolutely not too obvious, absolutely not too easy to win over with “the power of friendship and love”, REALLY fucking chilling and terrifying at points. i really loved how the trauma it left on catra was NOT downplayed, how often you could see her hand reaching the back of her neck when the chips were discussed. that was brilliant.

hordak and wrong!hordak were great. i kinda feared wrong!hordak was gonna turn out to be embarrassing but they kinda managed to tread the thin line there and success at making him really funny most times. hordak struggle with his memories was very good, and by GOD was i fucking grateful they didn’t make his fanship with entrapta canon with all the shipping fest that this season was.

catra with short hair was too fucking much for my poor heart and i WILL FIGHT with adora over her hair length preferences.

she ra’s new design was FIRE and it’s absolutely my favorite one. 

i know melog was kinda giving the team easy instances of deux-ex-machina with his invisibility gift but i love an adorable big alien panther thingy. plus, he really did come across as a powerful and threatening being in his debut episode.

the characters, backgrounds, general worldbuilding designs in this show continued to be utterly beautiful. really appreciate that. the mix between fantasy and sci-fi was SO good.

i really liked how bow, the heart of the best friends squad, was the one who struggled the most with glimmer’s return and with forgiving her. it added plenty of really good depth to his character. 

adora’s struggle with her identity and destiny was an ongoing theme but still, a+ on the execution, especially coming off last season’s closing cliffhanger.

god it’s already becomes so ingrained and obvious in my mind but obviously it needs to be discussed - CATRADORA CANON. like, BEAUTIFULLY canon. i started off the season with “are they gonna do it?” and pretty early on (like, when catra and glimmer were still prisoners kind of early) i became convinced like “they’re ABSOLUTELY heading towards it or the fandom is gonna burn this show” and then it was becoming SUPER obvious and i was like “okay are they gonna finally kiss now? finally kiss NOW? finally kiss now?” but obviously they had to save the big kiss to the climax and i was very okay with that because at that point their romantic love for each other was SO obvious. and just....... wow kudos to the show for going the length and making this ship canon, it was so SO so so so so satisfying and refreshing to see and i love love love loved it. because it really WASN’T done in an obvious way? they couldn’t really allow each other to openly love each other until catra started to REALLY heal and give up her old ways? and THAT was the ONLY well written and natural way for their ship to finally happen because adora is TOO heroic and lawful good-aligned to let herself openly love catra while catra was still in the dark side. so catra didn’t get it easy and had to go the way and change for adora and it WASN’T badly written because catra’s struggle with her love for adora and her hardships while being on the dark side and with her huge ass pride and will to do the easy thing over the right thing vs. her struggle with wish for meaningful relationships and being drawn to good-aligned characters and with having adora in her life again - all of those were SERIES-LONG issues that were explored with catra and while, as a i said, i wish we could’ve seen catra struggle with her lifelong habits a bit longer once she made the choice to join the rebellion, it STILL was made SO WELL with the time they were given and wow, GOOD SHIT. so joined appreciation BOTH for catra’s writing AND for how catradora grew to become canon this season.

bow/glimmer becoming canon was short and sweet and i was satisfied with that.

REALLY happy double trouble made a return. i still kinda wish they were given a BIT more to do, but they’re still probably the best written shapeshifter character i’ve encountered so far.

okay that’s all i can think of off the top of my head so far

overall: 4/5 the show’s like.........a REALLY good fish dish that unfortunately still has got a few bones in it that kinda stick in your mouth when you eat it. but it’s still so good overall that you can’t help but adore it. still wish the season, this show could spend more time in the oven. more work on the animation, more work on the comedic writing, more work for... general tweaks here and there. more TIME, another season, would’ve been brilliant, but sometimes it’s just not part of the plan or the upper ups (netflix/dreamworks in this case i presume) are just assholes and refuse to give the show the episode count it deserves. but still happy and glad for what it was. kudos to the dramatic writing, kudos to the character development, kudos to the designs and color and background work, kudos to the lgbt+ rep. 

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

I'm not a catra stan-stan and definitely not an apologist but I really like her character. Her redemption arc was botched and it's a shame because she had a really interesting character, and she had perspective on abuse that I'd never seen portrayed before.

I live in a relatively abusive home with (gross generalisation here) me as a scapegoat and my brother as the golden child. I'm not proud of it but i've been abusive like catra (even if not to this extent because ??????? She did reallyfucked up things ?????????). And seeing that on screen, it was freeing in a way, like staring in a really dark mirror, and it felt good to have a character to relate too in this aspect.

And then came the redemption arc 🤡 honestly Catra's point of view is not badly written from what I remember. Like trying your best to be a better person and stop being abusive, but the other person doing something that sets you off and falling back on those patterns on instincts ? I've been there, and it's somewhat nice to have the scene with mealog to relate to for example. Having to take responsibility for your actions and your reactions, but every sorry feels awful and has to be torn out of you because you feel guilty as fuck and you know apologies aren't gonna change anything, and you know there will be other instances when your abusive tendencies will take over despite your best efforts? It was freeing to see those sorts of moments on screen.

But adora shouldn't have forgiven her. The others shouldn't have forgiven her. Maybe they could be forgiven, but not trusted. It doesn't make sense, it's rushed, it's stupid, I hate it. Also catra stops feeling guilty really fucking early for what she's done, like ma'am show a bit more remorse you tried to kill her ? Stop complaining when frosta punches you in the face, it's explainable and you deserve it. In her redemption, she lashed at Adora once or twice, got told it's okay I forgive you please don't do it anymore and suddenly she was "fixed". That's not how it works and it sucks, it hurts, that's not how it works. We never saw a broken catra post redemption, and it lacked.

So, yeah. I'm pissed about her redemption arc, and it's a shame because i really wanted to see it work.

(I didn't even mention catradora because that's not the point but the amatonormativity of it all? You're broken but your true love's kiss has fixed you so it's okay)

this is exactly how i feel too! i didn't start off hating catra because she was a really compelling villain and a scarily accurate version of an abuse victim who started adopting those abusive tendencies themselves. i didn't relate to her entirely but i could definitely relate to some aspects of her, especially her anger that sometimes got best of her.

but it feels like the creators forgot that she was supposed to be redeemed and kept making her do the most heinous things with no remorse, only to remember in s5 that she needs to be redeemed, and shoving a hasty redemption arc where she ultimately does not change at all.

i don't think even catra's perspective was that good because she only changed for adora. she didn't redeem herself because she knew what she was doing was wrong or because she regretted taking part in the war. she did it because she wanted adora back and also because she was of no use to horde prime.

and after getting saved by adora, catra honestly does not try much to actually correct her mistakes. she keeps lashing out at adora and abusing her, she's snarky with the other princesses and keeps falling back into her old habits. and no one ever calls her out for it. healing is not linear, sure, but there should have been someone who would keep catra in check and call her out when she starts acting shitty again.

but no, the only instance of her trying that we got was when she admitted that she was working on her anger issues, and then immediately proceeded to guilt trip adora by saying that adora was giving her a hard time.

catra really had a lot of potential but it's a shame the creators valued a rushed toxic romance more than actual character development and good storytelling.

[wishaliee]

See the issue with your way of thinking Is that it’s entirely disconnected from what actually happened in the show and instead centered around fandom perception and opinion.

Catra was given a million chances to go with adora and every single time she willingly turned them down- So her staying with the horde was NO DIFFERENT than entraptas decision except for the fact that nobody actually asked entrapta to come back nor give her a second chance in any way they saw her there- even considered she could be under shadow weavers mind control- and then moved on.

Entraptas ark in the horde was far from innocent, obviously, but she had lines she didn’t cross. Such as destroying the entire world. Something Catra was completely comfortable with doing all to get back at adora in her own sycophantic ways. And as soon as their two ways of thinking crossed Catra did what she always does and resolved the problem by violence. As she does over and over and over again in the show.

Catra hurts people on purpose constantly throughout the series entraptas motives are entirely different. She prioritizes her tech and knowledge and sees the rest as side effects. Necessary consequences. But then again she’s a villain a good 80% of the show that’s what they do.

But alas when all is said and done Catra gets accepted right back into adoras and the gang’s arms with little strings attached I get she went through primes trauma but it was as if she hadn’t done ANY of those atrocities. Within an episode of her being rescued glimmer- who may I remind you had her mother killed by catras actions- was kissing her on the cheek. It was ridiculous and badly written but even if it WASNT the issue here is that entrapta- who had done a FRACTION of catras damage up to this point was facing more consequences than her. The princesses treated her like absolute shit. Entrapta had suffered from her stay in the horde the same way Catra did. Entrapta spent an entire season on beast island a literal death sentence and almost DID die there just as Catra had with prime. However instead of everyone freaking out about her being there and going to save her IMMEDIATELY as everyone did with Catra and prime she was left there and glimmer had even argued to LEAVE HER there until they had other things sorted. Then when she was inevitably saved because they only needed her for her tech knowledge they still treated her like a piece of shit. “Launch” in s5 being the worst of it. Instead of working with her (yknow because she’s a grown ass woman and knows her stuff better than anyone else there) they put her on a leash and deem her “untrustworthy” mermista screams at her pulls her hair and the rest of them don’t hesitate getting on her case about her “dumb bots” either. She’s reduced to tears and runs off onto a battlefield to try to make up for it. Even after everything she still wants to help people but not once do mermista and the lot apologize for treating her that way. I don’t care who it is that sort of treatment when someone is just trying to help you is horrid if it were catra I would have said the same damn thing but she had her redemption served to her on a silver platter. THATS the issue. If entrapta was treated like that for a fraction of what catra had done why not treat catra the SAME WAY? What’s so special about her? and if catra ISNT treated that way why not exempt entrapta of consequences as well. It works both ways.

As a fellow autistic person i have to say when I was watching the show I saw a shit ton of ableism- In addition to Catra, Scorpia who also willingly worked with the horde and participated in just as much destruction as entrapta was accepted by the princesses within an episode as well- HELL even SHADOW WEAVER was accepted after an episode or two as well. NONE of them got that sort of “launch” treatment that entrapta did. None of them got left to die, screamed at for helping, had their hair pulled, was put on a LEASH, or constantly excluded and talked bad about. The way that the princesses react whenever entrapta talks about her hyperfixation, the way people complain every time they have to be around her, and again, the launch scene, they all SCREAM ableism because of the way the other NT characters are treated. Especially catra. Did you see nothing horrible and unsettling about launch? I sobbed my eyes out watching it simply because it reminded me so much of things I’ve heard myself

It’s not that entrapta doesn’t deserve consequences it’s that the same never applied to Catra. And that logic is flawed. It’s not infantilizing her to want the same treatment to be applied to all the characters.

The place your coming from- not wanting entrapta to be infantilized- is a good one. I can see that. But there are most certainly issues needing to be addressed here.

Very funny that when Entrapta thinks SHES been abandoned (and then stays with the horde even after its been made clear that that wasn't what happened) suddenly all of her actions are completely absolved and every consequence or hurt feelings she faces as a result are ALL labeled as "ableism"

But when CATRA thinks she's been abandoned (despite having evidence to the contrary LIKE ENTRAPTA) Her actions need "consequences" (read: suffering or being completely cut off from everyone she used to know while not actually getting to improve her character) and "anger" Because Catra isn't someone you can "uwu autism" their flaws away nothing could ever be enough for yall.

We get it you infantalize the clearly autistic character. Go fuck yourself. Signed, an autistic person who is damn fucking tired of yall infantalizing autistic ppl/characters in the name of fighting "ableism" the call is coming from inside the house assholes.

[acephysicskarkat]

Adora’s arc is such a goddamn mess in the end.

Adora, as a character, never seems particularly motivated by a desire for romantic love. Like, she’s capable of crushes, as witnessed with Huntara, but “I want to be loved” doesn’t seem to show up on her radar at any point. Friendships, yes, she seems to value those a lot. She wants to understand herself and her place in the universe. She wants to find her family, which is generally portrayed as an extension of the previous two points: a place she belongs, and which helps her understand who she is.

Romantic love, though? Never seems particularly significant. Never really shows up on her radar. There’s no Fantasy Valentine’s Day episode where she seems lonely or haunted. She never seems either confused about or jealous of the known romantic couples she encounters, like Bow’s dads or Spinnerella and Netossa. She’s unaware of terms built on blood relationships, like “aunt”, but never seems to question the concept of a husband or wife.

This is why her arc in S5 ends up so weird, because it decides to concentrate on how Adora deserves to focus on her own wants sometimes at a point in the narrative when the show does not care what Adora wants.

Her desire to find her family turns out to be totally irrelevant. We get confirmation that they’re probably dead and Adora barely reacts. She showed more emotion when confronted with a cake that looked like her the previous season than when she discovers that Horde Prime has taken away something she previously valued so much she was willing to leave the Horde for a chance of finding it.

Her friendships are mostly just used for cheap Drama Points as part of the overall sidelining of the Princess Alliance. (Because, you know, a show called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power should spend its entire final season vaguely annoyed that it has to have Princesses of Power and mostly treat She-Ra as a Save The Day button that’s activated by filling out the showrunner’s shipping chart.) Significant friendship breaches like the breaking of the BFS in the previous season or Catra’s history of treating her like shit, which we received confirmation in season 5 dates back to about the age of nine, are breezed past in like twenty seconds. And that’s a really wild shift given that the power of her friendships within the Princess Alliance blasted away an entire army and healed Glimmer’s glitching back in season 1.

As a result, the final resolution feels weird. Adora gets the thing the show decided, like a third of the way into the final season, she had always wanted, and that makes it okay that the things that she literally has always wanted per the actual episodes they put on Netflix were bluntly shoved into the background or forgotten about entirely.

I’m not saying that you can’t or shouldn’t do a show where The Power Of Love saves the day. I’m just saying that, even overlooking the whole “Catra's entire personality is made of red flags and the script keeps undermining any attempt to develop or redeem her” issue, it’s an awkward pivot when the show had previously seemed to be focused more on friendship than romance.

You have a character who wants to find a family, you have the best candidates for her found family literally in the name of the show, and then you go for “the day is saved by Toxic, Badly Written Romantic Love (TM)!”

The disconnect between what the show had previously seemed to be going for and what we’re told was the plan all along is wild.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

honestly when i first watched spop, around the time i got to s3, I saw the fandom talking about how horrible glimmer is in s4 and i was worried. i had already seen how badly written catra was, especially since she didn't seem to be facing consequences for any of her actions yet. i didn't want glimmer to also be ruined as a character.

but when i reached s4.. it wasn't as bad as i thought. glimmer certainly had her not so great moments, and she made a lot of mistakes. but i could also sympathize a lot more with glimmer because unlike catra, she didn't have a choice. catra could have left the horde, she just chose to stay and make everyone miserable.

glimmer, on the other hand, couldn't just abandon her kingdom. she couldn't resign from her role of being a queen, there's no one else to take her place. and of course, that doesn't excuse some of the things she said and did, but you know that she had good intentions all along. the show makes that clear.

she was the true definition of a complex character, because she did bad things for a good reason. she lashed out and let her emotions get the best of her but unlike catra, she immediately shows regret. she doesn't actively enjoy hurting people or cause destruction due to selfishness. glimmer also apologizes to bow and adora as soon as she realizes that they were right. unlike catra who couldn't even admit that she might not be perfect, let alone apologize sincerely to the people she hurt.

and yet, people love to villanize glimmer. they love to act like she's worse than catra, when she's not. in fact, she's one of the better written characters. she learned from her mistakes and while i'm not fond of the way she treats catra in s5, she still had a somewhat satisfactory arc.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

so.. non-c//a criticism about spop. because, you know, c//a wasn't the only thing that spop messed up. I'll just get straight to the point.

Horde Prime was a bad villain.

he had such a cool character design, i had high hopes for him. but like everything else in s5, horde prime's potential was wasted.

to put it shortly, he was boring. he was the typical pure-evil villain archetype with none of the charm. his motives weren't very interesting, we know nothing about him except that he's hordak's brother and an egotistic fascist with a god complex. his VA did a good job but his character was so badly written, even they couldn't salvage it.

even hordak was more intimidating than him until he got defeated by the inexperienced teenager who was never shown to be improving her skills but that's a whole another post

i thought the whole religious trauma aspect of it was going to be explored more, but it just turned out to be cartoonishly stupid, with the typical brainwashing trope.

not to mention, they even added shipping fodder in scenes with horde prime, because of course they had to. how else would people know that catra loves adora? she hasn't ever shown it so the only way the crew can convince everyone that she cares about adora is by having the main villain point it out (not to mention the scrapped off script where he says "you always wanted more but all she ever wanted was you" because we love a villain who exists solely to provide the viewers with ship angst)

the first one pisses me off so much because they didn't even bother to draw catra's eyes dilated yet had horde prime mention it?? all while glimmer was sobbing and pleading him to not hurt adora, but she's not the one in love apparently. i feel like this show was trying to gaslight us

anyway, shipping aside. one common trope in media you may have heard about is the third-act breakdown. this is something that usually happens to villains where their once intimidating and confident façade starts to break apart as they are close to being defeated by our hero.

the keyword here is third-act. if you want a villain to be genuinely scary or an actual threat, you cannot make them lose their cool as soon as something goes wrong. because it just makes them look insecure and weak, and you're left wondering why they're even the main villain in the first place.

and the problem with horde prime is exactly that. as soon as adora swoops in and saves catra, horde prime is immediately angered and upset that his plans failed. and from there, we see him get irritated and lose his cool easily multiple times.

this lessens the anticipation because you're not wondering how the protagonists will defeat him, you're wondering when they'll do it. because if he loses his cool so easily, it's clear that he's not cunning or calculating, he doesn't have a backup plan. and a good villain always has a backup plan, they are always one step ahead of the heroes, because that's how you raise the stakes.

it's no wonder horde prime isn't even a memorable villain and people only talk about how he brainwashed catra or how he "ships catradora". there's nothing else notable about him and it's honestly so evident that he was only introduced so that the previous villains could be redeemed for the sake of making certain ships canon.

they literally had to make it so that adora might die because of the failsafe thing, because having horde prime as a villain wasn't enough stakes.

they tried to make a connection between adora and horde prime with mara being his previous nemesis, but it was really hamfisted and didn't provide enough tension or exposition. it certainly didn't feel as tense as any of the fights between catra and adora.

horde prime could have been a really cool and threatening villain, but spop decided to focus more on handing out free redemption arcs for all the antagonists and butchering everyone's character arcs instead. bravo.