#catradora is so much better anyway

[catradoratwtgoodies]

Sometimes I remember that 80s she ra had a love triangle between Adora, Sea hawk and Catra and I’m so thankful for Nate Stevenson

[dykrophone]

finished my she-ra rewatch and catradora really is the greatest love story ever told huh 😻 catra antis have fun being annoying and bitter I'M THRIVING LET'S GO LESBIANS WE REALLY FUCKING WON

[sometipsygnostalgic]

i'm losing my mind how are there STILL ACTIVE CATRA HATE BLOGS it's been FOUR YEARS how are you still this mad about a female abuse victim!!!!!! how do you STILL not get it!!!!!!!!!!

I have been in enough fandoms to understand that some of the people who stick around the longest are those who act the most scarred after watching the media. It's like stockholme syndrome. Or it's like hating the thing is what gives them drive in the world.

I have also been on the other side of this. I remained a Homestuck blog for a whole four years after the ending made me depressed about Terezi Pyrope, even lasting an additional year and a half after the dogshit epilogues released, through to the demise of Hiveswap and Homestuck^2, before I realised enough was enough and let Adventure Time give me sanctuary again.

But Homestuck had its Gamzee fans who hated the comic and fandom, Adventure Time had its Lemongrab fans who hated the show and fandom, and it seems She-ra has its fair share of antis.

The She-ra antis consist of the following groups, from my observation:

Former fans who got obsessed with some other show and have to bash She-ra because it ain't cool anymore. Usually Owl House fans but can be from anywhere. Their hate is universally connected to propping something else up, and is never done in isolation.

Hordak fans who hate Catra and maybe every other character and crew member and the show. There are a lot of the reverse, Catra fans who hate Hordak, which is part of why this group is so persistent, as a "counter" to this Hordak hate. However, the Catra fans who are Hordak antis MOSTLY do not hate the show (they are just... out of touch with it and generally have bad takes). I've seen one or two extreme cases of Catra apologists accusing Adora, Scorpia, and even Entrapta of abuse, but they were completely alone in their feelings. The Hordak fans who hate Catra tend to also hate Glimmer, Mermista, Adora, Bow, and say that the show is ableist or whatever, but they do not actually harbor much love for Entrapta. Her victimisation is an excuse for their behaviour and they have no understanding of her chaotic character. Do not interact.

Glimmadora fans (the ones who purely seem to exist to make 'Spop Is Abusive' posts). Why the fuck Glimmadora fans hate the show so much, I do not understand. But these are probably the most In-Your-Face of these three groups. While the Hordak fans mentioned above have a lot of similarity to Homestuck Gamzee fans or Adventure Time Lemongrab fans in the weird way they'll hate on the show for doing their blorbo wrong, Glimmadora fans don't have that evidence because they don't really care about Glimmer or Adora. They have absolutely nothing to say about the show, other than that it is Bad. My theory on these Glimmadora fans is that they really liked the Glimmer and Adora ship on a superficial level, and then the show decided to have its Deeper Themes and give Catra and Adora a messy, complicated relationship. There was a lot happening after season 3 where people went "CATRADORA IS REALLY ABUSIVE AND CATRA IS HORRIBLE AND YOU SHOULDNT SHIP HER WITH ANYONE". This period was SO fucking harmful to the fandom that it never recovered, so much work was lost and deleted from AO3. People would say "Glimmadora is a much better ship anyway". But then when season 4 rolled around and, uhh, Glimmer was acting like a little shit all season (for good reason but she really fucked things up with Adora), and Glimmadora crumbled into ash? Well the Glimmadora truthists felt like the show was working against them and that Season 5 was a grand conspiracy to make the Abusive ship Catradora canon!!! The funniest part of this is I sympathise a lot with these feelings. I used to be a Glimmadora truther myself when I watched the show in fall 2021. I was like, "wow, look how nice this ship is. And they go with catradora in the end?? Fucking HOW???". But then seasons 4 and 5 happened and.... yeah, I was disappointed with how Glimmer and Adora's friendship ended up, but I was ENAMORED by the messiness of Catra's character and how raw her and Adora felt about each other even in spite of all the bullshit. I never made excuses about the show being abuse apologising. I analysed it purely in how believable the relationships were and what the intentions of the characters are.

Of these groups, the ones responsible for the most actual SPOP Anti blogs are undoubtedly the Glimmadoras. The only time I've seen something similar, so many antis appearing, was because of Steven Universe ship wars. You have NO IDEA how petty people feel about Lapidot, Amedot, all the dots, all the amethysts. A crew member was chased off the internet over it, or left the internet over the show's own decisions, depending on whether you believe the """screenshots""" that were taken of Zuke's ""private blog""".

[stanlunter]

I'm kinda curious why you don't like catradora? Is it just not your thing or do you have reasons? Just kinda curious as I almost always only see the "they were enemies! And that makes it too toxic!" But I saw you like catra/glimmer so yeah, just curious as someone who personally likes it but also hasn't watched the show in ages

Thank you for your question

Yeah, I do hate it, mb not its fans (or at least not all of them, cuz most of them are actually super annoying, but anyways) tho. Also sorry for my bad English

As for the reasons, there are actually many reasons:

Starting with, like you said

1. Being toxic. But the difference with Glitra is that in their way It's not like Catra abuses Glimmer, no, they hate each other mutually, there ia no "abuser x victim" dynamic, bc they hurt each other mutually. Also there are no manipulations, guilt-trips, gaslighting and etc, they are completely honest with each other. While with Adora, their dynamic is rather "abuser x victim" than "enemies to lovers" bc Adora never wanted to hurt Catra, she was always only ensuring what Catra's doing and saying. Adora was always holding back, never tried to kill Catra or make her feel like nothing or hate herself and all her fights were litterally either self-defense or defense of her friends or other people who were attacked by Catra. While Catra always tried to hurt Adora, both mentally and physically, tried to kill her many times, tried to make her hate herself and etc, etc. She was the reason why Adora had such a strong hero complex and always wanted to sacrafice herself. Adora litterally had panic attacks bc of Catra. And the whole "it was a war" argument doesn't work here bc being a war criminal doesn't make Catra any better and bc Catra was toxic to Adora even when they were on the same side. She was always jealous, controlling, possesive and didn't want Adora to have other friends. She wanted Adora to belong to her, which was shown many times. Also she physically hurt her many times, gaslighted her and etc. So their relationship would be much more abusive than Glitra relationship. And what makes it even worse is that Catra has learnt all her abusive traits from SW - recognized Adora's abuser. Catra litterally copies everything the main abuser who has traumatized Adora in the forefront does, which is actually creepy af too. Even she tortures Adora in s4 she says that she took the idea from SW. So she just takes the abuse she (and Adora) has been throught and intentionally uses it against Adora

Even if you have a kink for abusive ship, you should write them well and not put them in a kid show, normalizing abuse by this. There are examples of good enemies to lovers in kid shows which aren't abusive and It's fine (like Dipper/Pacifica, Talon/Penny, Bubblegum/Marcelin kinda, Amaya and Janai (It's good and It's wlw too), even Glimmadora would work since they were enemies too and etc).

2. The whole being "basically adoptive sisters" thing. They aren't actual sisters, but they were actually implied to be so. I won’t even mention every time the CREW referred to them this way (however, there were many times), but the main problem is that their whole relationship is fully based on the "Skapegoat & Golden child" dynamic. And SW is a mother figure who loves one child and hates the other one, who always tries to earn her love and jealous and hate the favourite child. Some people say SW was just a teacher and not a mom figure, but it would be a lie at least bc 1. The crew has stated SW as a mother figure, so It's canon anyways 2. It was said by Adora that SW was like a mother to her 3. You don't try to earn your teacher's LOVE like Catra does 4. The whole thing that SW sees herself in Catra and wanted fulfil her ambitions throught Adora. Also SW wasn't a mother figure for other cadets, it wasn't actually her duty to teach Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio and others. She was a right hand, not a teacher and she was there only for Adora bc she decided so and for Catra bc Adora wanted so. So, even if you're trying to ignore it, It's a huge part of the plot and a base of their relationship. Oddly enough, but many catradora shippers actually love to admit that "SW was a bad abusive mother", "Catra & Adora have mommy issues", "Adora is a favourite child" and etc, yet when you point it out, they start denying it. I find it strange.

Another thing is subjective, just my personal vision, but I highly dislike all "childhood friends" ships (mb with exceptions if they always actually had feelings for each other, but in catradora case we find out about it only later, especially from Adora's perspectice). Also there is a biological theory that if kids know each other since the age under 6, they see each other as siblings anyways, especially if they grow up together in the same house, especially with the sams parent figure. So, even tho it's subjective, It's an important reason to ms. And I actually did thought of them so and thought everyone does untill I joined the fandom. So even if I don't recognize "see each other as siblings" thing when it comes to usual friends who haven't been grown up together, I do with those who have. Flr example, Renora. This ship was always weird to me and when they become canon, it didn't make me love it. I don't think It's problematic, but it absolutely does make me feel uncomfortable. Like, if you haven't developed your feelings for each other for during these 10 years you were together, where are the feelings suppose to come from later?

But yeah, childhood friends thing is my subjective reason

3. Catra's redemption arc was horrible. And redemption arc is one of the most important things when it comes to enemies-to-lovers, since It's the thing that suppose to help them become canon. Everyone immidiatly has to forgive Catra and no one calls Catra out for what she has done. Even Glimmer, who's mom was killed bc of Catra or Adora who has been abused by Catra for years. And so Catra doesn't even actually changes. She just swaps sides and immidiatly becomes Adora's gf. That's the problem. If you write enemies-to-lovers, do it well

4. The whole way the shis was handled. It just doesn't make sense and completely ruins the whole development of almost all characters. Adora's development is getting destroyed and she just comes back to s1 Adora. Her whole arc was about stopping blaming herself for Catra's actions, separating from her abusers and getting a life. But she just ends up forgiving Catra and considering Catra a victim of herself. And starts blaming herself for "leaving" Catra again. They just forget everything they've been throught. And what about Catra? Catra was obsessed the whole time. She hated Adora and liked hurting her. Catra was litterally addictive to Adora. It wasn't love, it was possesion. And giving an addict a drug isn't a way to go. Catra should separated from Adora, learn how to live without the idea of being "either with her, or againt her". That's why I think her leaving the Horde with Scorpia and going to a Crimson waste would be the best happy ending for her. She would get a life, get what she wanted (being loved), what she needed and what she deserved and let her issues go. So they just aren't good for each other. Having Adora around was always hurting Catra, Catra never was able to fully show herself when Adora was with her in the Horde and she even saya that Adora leaving gave her a chance to fulfil her actual potential, so Adora leaving was the best thing happened to her. Even if Catra wasn't fully agree with her own words, it was basically truth, bc Catra actually did feel bad bc of Adora when they were together (it wasn't Adora's fault, but still). Catra was always blaming Adora for her problems and didn't stop even in s5. So It was bad not only for Adora, but for Catra as well

Also Adora never even loved Catra before. If Catra's possesion can be called love at some point, it doesn't work this way with Adora. Yeah, Adora cared about Catra as a friend, but DT was right, Adora didn't need Catra. She didn't have such big problems with letting Catra go. After s1 she forgot Catra and never recalled her as a friend, only as an enemy. So her whole "I love you too" thing just came out of nowhere and was a lie. Just like "I never hated her" bc Adora did and it was shown. Adora got new friends who care about her and getting Catra was absolutely unnecessary for her. It doesn't work even as a Stockholm Syndrome or a trauma bond, bc it was never shown and Adora got a development

Actually, if it did make sense, mb I would like it, but unfortunately it really doesn't and only ruines everything the show has been building for years, which is sad, cuz I used to love both Catra and Adora

It's also strange to me how shippers compare catradora to so many actually good wlw couples like Korrasami, Harlivy, Caitvy, Lumity, Bumbleby, Chaggie and etc, while in reality their relationship is much closer to Tauradonna (which is actually hated by Bumbleby shippers, which is ironic) and Citrus and actually Shin Soukoku and Simon/Grace, or even some actual/ almost actual siblings like Vi/Jinx, Zuko/Azula, Rapunzel/Cassandra, Claudia/Soren, Qrow/Raven, Maki/Mai, Nightwing/Red hood, Thor/Loki, White queen/ Red queen and etc.

But I would prefer to compare it to Shin Soukoku tho

So, these are the main reasons. Actually I don't understand why can't catradora shippers just admit that their ship is problematic and enjoy it as it is, bc it doesn't really make sense to just make ship a full ooc and make it romantic and sweet to like it, bc it litterally goes against the whole point and everything it always has been. So I have a big respect for those shippers who do admit the problems and enjoy it without lying to themselves and gaslighting others tbh

Anyways, thanks for a question, it was actually interesting to answer it and you can feel free to asnwer, desagree or agree, Im not a hater or smth

[spopsalt]

More miscellaneous She-Ra pins I found while sorting through Pinterest that made me want to die and my commentary on them. Pt. 2

Don’t you have to at least like eachother to be family? Thaws guys aren’t even friends. The only ones that get along are Scorpia and Perfuma, which was forced as hell, and Frosta is on okay terms with most (not all) of the characters listed. Everyone else tolerates eachother at best, or seem to flat out hate eachother at worst.

For example… Just gonna drop a little fun fact here, Mermista is the only Rebellion member who can breathe underwater. So, pairing that knowledge, along with Mermista’s subtle-as-a-bat-to-the-face hatred for Entrapta, and her overall unpleasant personality that leads me to believe she would do this without batting an eye, I’m fully convinced this fanart is just Mermista trying to murder Entrapta via drowning, and they made Entrapta seem too stupid to realize it. Listen, I watched Steven Universe, and specifically remember one of the eventual protagonists did try to drown others the same way. But at least they called her out for it at some point. Lapis didn’t seem to regret it, but at least they call her out. Knowing that Perfuma yoinked Entrapta off a high-ass rock, and could’ve killed her by doing that and didn’t seem to care… Idk, I feel like Mermista casually trying to drown Entrapta and Entrapta being portrayed as obliviously smiling because she’s treated as too dumb to live could easily be something I could see happening in canon. No, it hasn’t happened in canon, but it’s just so in line with the writing that I could see it.

Double whammy here. Some fans must be gymnast level flexible with how much they’re reaching. This is literally just her sleeping. Lots of people sleep that way. I mean, if it was the canon reason she does this, I wouldn’t take it so much as a sign of shipping as much as it’s a sign of Catra being entitled. Girl has a bed and chooses to take up half of Adora’s. I get that real cats do it, but real cats are also not the size of a teen girl and taking up that much space. I definitely don’t think the way Adora sleeps has anything to do with Catra. I’m just saying if it did, it wouldn’t be great anyway.

Idk about same, but it’s definitely similar energy. But these fans gotta realize it’s not a good thing…

Also, I hate how Glimmer and Bow are just smiling and letting it happen. I don’t even like Glimmer or Bow that much, but I can confidently say that they’re better friends than this. I swear, their writing in S5 was utter trash.

Like how you said, most of these people just tolerate each other at best, and hate each other at worst

Yeahhh given the Mermista is VERY obvious in her distain for Entrapta, I doubt it's just some cute silly thing

Damn Catradora stans back must hurt from all the streching their doing. That's a common sleeping posistion? I sleep like that, does it mean I'm making space for my abusive sister to sleep at the edge of my bed like a dog?

Ah yes, two people disobeying their love interests boundaries while nobody does anything to stop them when the other person is clearly uncomfortable..how romantic

[peoplesrazor]

Oh boy...

So in her introduction, Lily names five shows she thinks people talk about the most often for important LGBTQIA+ Rep. Those shows are Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and The Owl House. She mentions three other shows that I'll talk about later that she says people don't talk about, but which either had rep earlier, or had just as good or better rep.

She doesn't mention Ducktales or the Daria movie Is It Fall Yet ?or any other shows. Just in case you're wondering. She talks about Braceface, 6teen, and Lloyd In Space. Now, Lily has mentioned the other two as they were shows she watched growing up. I think Lloyd was a suggestion on her blog. I remember someone mentioning it there.

I'll let her arguments for these stand as she is mostly talking about how "early" they were. I do want to point out these characters were only in couple of episodes in one case, and a single episode in the others. So, Daria should have certainly been at least mentioned as an early example, even if it wasn't a very good characterization.

The three shows she says have better rep then the five she thinks are held up so much:

Craig of the Creek has several couples that fit this description and it's good rep, because it's so low-key. People talk about them though. The show, though very good, can be a bit niche to begin with so it just doesn't have a large vocal audience.

The Loud House has Luna and Sam, which does get talked about too, but it's a contemporary of the other shows you mentioned. Which means Luna and Sam, by your standards for the more modern stuff, have to be main characters. If you count Luna and Sam as main characters, you have to count, at least, fifteen other people. Kind of easy for their couple of 15 minute episodes to get lost in that shuffle.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is one of my all time favorite shows. Lily says people are sleeping on Benson and Troy due to racism. What? Kipo is very popular in the fandom circles I hang around in and Benson and Troy are like THE ship. Did you sleep on this one, Lily? Did no one in your circle recommend it because it's a serialized fantasy adventure? Is that why you never did a dedicated video on it, despite it's rep being so good?

It wouldn't be a Lily video if she didn't tear down the shows other people like. First, there is something she repeatedly gets wrong, as far as I know, about Korra. She again says that Korrasami was a popular ship, true, and that they threw it together last minute, false. At least, by everything I've found. No, it wasn't planned from the start, but it wasn't last minute, either.

They started discussing it while writing book one. Writing. Not during it's run, not while animating the last few eps. While writing it. Why wait then? I suspect it's for something Lily has actually complained about before that actually happens. For some reason, showrunners want to wait until the end of the series to have the couple end up together. I suspect it was never anything deeper than that.

Okay, onto the Catradora thing. I'm not going to argue with anyone, not even Lily, who finds the relationship toxic, unhealthy, abusive. Though, now that I think about it, Lily, you sure seem to like to repeatedly show that footage for someone who gets triggered by FMA.

Anyway, I want to point out this hypocrisy:

Lily: If I have to hear it on a live stream, read it in production materials, or on Twitter, it doesn't count. I base my criticism only on what is in the show.

Also Lily: Let me once again call Catra and Adora sisters based on a single line I found on one page of outside materials, despite the show never once giving any indication that is the case.

She also lies and says it does indicate that. It does not. Hey Lily? Are Kyle, Rogelio and Lonnie also siblings? Wait. You never actually watched the show, you probably don't know who they are.

Should have just posted the bingo card again.

[beepsalotl]

crying ugh i love these characters so much and i hate the world so much except i dont and i just wish i could have what these characters had and be in a place that isnt like this one

im gonna cry ugh i dont know why i care so much, theyre not even real. but, like, in my head, they are, yknow? as in, they exist in the space i built for rhem as i read the series and learned about them and their world

fun fact, they were the first two characters whose books (each is the continuation of the story from a different third-person-limited perspective) had their names in the title. black hardcover w green embellishments for moonwatcher, a nightwing. white hardcover w blue for winter, an icewing. books six and seven, respectively. all the symbolism was there before you even open the goddamn books. yin and yang. AND YET.

and also they had two different histories and their tribes had a stale feud for thousands of years bc of some asshole jerkface. moon knew nothing about it bc she was raised in the rainforest practically by herself bc her mom had to sneak away from the shitty volcanic island the nightwings lived on to hide from the historic nightmare jerkface. winter knew all about it (or he THOUGHT he did bc he only knew the icewing side) bc he grew up surrounded by heirarchy and laws and rules and structure. moon didn’t grow up with the resentment at all, which allowed her a chance to see the truth.

she had to be self-sufficient. he had structure to lean on, even if it made him narrow-minded and nearly hard-hearted. he had to break through that, and she learned how to have patience. i feel like moon herself is sorely underdeveloped but i take the hints i can get and i feel that she learned how to forgive him by understanding who he was through his thoughts and, after skyfire, remembering that he was different inside than out and was still struggling.

when they were together, he was trying to be better and learn and he was kinder and softer even though he struggled to always be like that, and she was so patient with him.

heartbroken enraged screaming ensues, really.

like the rey and ben situation at the end of tros.

having him die in the end undermines everything the skywalker legacy stood for and all the development he had and it still breaks my heart bc he proved people can make bad, horrible choices and can survive abuse and break through it and change and be better and be loved. and then he DIED instead of getting his happy ending, which practically is what happened to winter bc the author basically said fuck you go live in the mountains doing work for peace and studying scavengers (which i know is his passion, but….) and your friends will hardly visit or write and they wont tell you the truth about how they defeated the bad guy WITHOUT ANY OF YOUR HELP EVEN THOUGH YOURE MORE THAN CAPABLE and they wont trust you and youll be alone forever.

my list of pairings and characters that i’m unreasonably heartbroken over:

ben and rey, winter and moon, catra and adora, draco and harry, zuko and katara.

catradora got together, ik, but their story still breaks my heart no matter how much hope it also gives me.

anyway, there’s no way for me to end this bc i dont even know what im feeling. it’s been years but winterwatcher’s fate still tears me up inside with the way it dashed my dreams of seeing a character like winter learn to let himself be loved.

i want to learn to let myself be loved, but i dont know how.

these characters are my attempts at finding myself out in the world and seeing if it’s possible. i dont attach my self-worth to them, but it hurts to see them fail to find romantic love where i saw it. idk

— a quick journal entry i wrote in my notes app years ago, as an emotional 16 year old with identity issues and way too much alone time on my hands

[ladyblueberrymuffin]

Okay, I think enough time has passed that I can share my opinions on these two.

It could've been great. As it is, not really into it. And not because "Catra is abusive" or "It's toxic", or any stupid stuff like that. It's enemies to lovers, she's bound to do shitty things until her redemption arc, that's perfectly fine, I love messy characters.

My problem is that the show seems only interested in showing Catra's side of the story. She gets flashbacks, she talks about Adora all the time, we get to see all the ways in which Adora makes her life better. Adora... is kinda ignored.

I think that's why people don't like it. There is an unfair meta power dynamic. Catra is the more important one to the writers.

So we don't really get to see what Adora gets out of this relationship. We get to see all the ways Adora is accommodating to Catra, helps her feel comfortable after they reunited, lets her be her gremlin self, but where are the scenes where Catra does the same for Adora?

And people will talk about Catradora like this wonderful "I let you be yourself" comfort goes both ways, but it doesn't. That's my problem, it feels like it's always up to Adora to accommodate Catra, not the other way around.

I needed to see Catra really go out of her way to be a good girlfriend after her redemption arc. Like disgustingly sweet and trying her best every episode.

The most nice thing Catra does for Adora is talk her out of bad ideas. It happens in episode one, where Shadow Weaver is trying to convince her to leave her friends behind, and in the finale, where Adora is willing to die to save Etheria.

And like, offering counsel is certainly important in a relationship, but it doesn't really show this relationship in a good light when Catra's ultimate act of love is telling Adora "You're wrong".

Doesn't this feel kinda counterintuitive to her redemption arc? All the bad things she's done is because she was stubborn and unwilling to listen to Adora's ideas, but then her redemption is shown through her disagreeing with Adora's ideas anyway.

If Catra is allowed to be firm with Adora when Adora is being stupid, then so should Adora be able to be firm with Catra when she's being stupid, or antagonizing her friends.

This is a fictional relationship, so you're allowed to make them tease each other, or being mean to each other, but it can't be one-sided, because then it stops being cute, and just becomes frustrating.

The reboot introduced me to the franchise, and I delved deep, and really fell in love with the original 80's Adora, like I adore her (haha), my favorite superhero. And you know what? Reboot Adora is neat as well. So it bothers me double the show kinda seems disinterested in her and doesn't give her more agency.

I like that the 80s show focused on Adora more. I get Catra is interesting, but so is Adora, and I don't think the reboot really capitalized on it. I hope next time she pops up, maybe in the CG He-man show, or maybe in Masters of The Universe: Revolution (I am convinced this whole new season will be about her, and Adam grappling with the fact he has a sister, they're just hiding her from all the trailers, like they did with season 1's twist), she really gets the focus she deserves. You have a chance to really sink your teeth into her being a redeemed villain herself. In the DC comics, Adora was evil before she started questioning her loyalties to the Horde. Like, she killed people and she enjoyed it, her redemption arc wasn't much different from reboot Catra, so you really have a chance to make your main character as interesting as the villain.

[youshouldjustliveinmychurch]

Thinking about the significance of falling when it come to Catradora. Obviously the imagery of cliffs, holding on to each other, and letting go are all significant in the narrative when it comes to their relationship. Two instances in particular stand out to me though as notable parallels. Catra falling into the portal and re-emerging as a twisted version of herself is very much in conversation with Adora falling into the chasm in the First One’s Temple and re-emerging as someone closer to the She-Ra that Light Hope (or her original programming) wants her to be. In both cases they’re reacting to having just experienced a mindbending mimicry of their lives together in the Horde before they split up. This is so eerie partially because reality is being expertly bent in both cases since there is a lot of truth woven into what Adora and Catra are seeing.

Adora is forced to literally let go (of her hold on the Cliff, her memories of Catra, her current feelings about Catra)/fall into the chasm. Light Hope has been trying to get her to let go the whole time because Adora’s attachment to other people threatens the First One’s plans to turn her into a weapon. Isolation. Other people are keeping her human. That of course extends to the Best Friends Squad, though it’s true that everyone expects too much of her, even the people she’s closest with. I think that’s one of the things that makes her relationship with Catra bloom in season 5. Catra wants Adora, specifically, not She-Ra. She is protective of Adora the person in a way that other people aren’t necessarily because she has an understanding of her that Bow and Glimmer aren’t going to have since they didn’t grow up with her in the Horde. Once Catra moves on from feeling in competition with Adora, then she can fully embrace her feelings. But anyway, tangent.

Adora being forced to let go/fall from the cliff is just the continuation of the idea that Adora feels like she has to choose the greater good over her own wants such as when she chooses the Rebellion over Catra. In her mind, she feels like there isn’t a choice. She has to leave Catra, even though she doesn’t want to do so. Light Hope is trying to take advantage of that trait for her own purposes, pushing Adora to follow orders and do what is best in the minds of the First Ones.

Now, Catra. Catra lets go of the cliff herself as reality is being pulled apart. This whole scene says so much about where her character is at this point in the plot. First of all, she tries to drag Adora down with her. She can’t stand the idea of Adora being better than her and on the moral high ground because part of that competitive dynamics is very much rooted in Shadow Weaver’s treatment of them both as children. Adora was prioritized. Catra was directly compared to Adora negatively and threatened with harm if she interfered with Adora’s “progress” in any way. Catra and Adora are both self-destructive at two ends of the same spectrum and the pressure/trauma caused by The Horde & First Ones are pushing them to extremes. Isolating extremes. Catra constantly feels a lack of safety and struggles with self-hatred. Catra lets go as she stares Adora in the eyes because she doesn’t feel worth much. I think that’s symbolic of her constantly pushing other people away on purpose as a way to both punish and protect herself.

When Catra re-emerges as Corrupted Catra we can see that her loathing for what Adora represents in her life has been taken to an extreme. I’m a believer that Corrupted Catra is just that. She’s still partially herself, but all of her instincts are taken to an extreme and it’s a raw expression of her hurt. Her pain is being visually symbolized by pieces of her simply being gone. This is another representation of the affect trauma is having on her and her life. That entire scene is brutal and it is good that Adora finally stands up for herself since obviously Catra is not justified in lashing out, but as she stands over Catra’s passed-out body, I think it’s a reminder that circumstances have been out of their control for a long while now. Trauma can isolate and push people away from each other (even when they need each other for healing), as well as away from being able to fully express themselves.

Then season 5 rolls around. Healing. Other people. Wanting. Self-expression. Wonderful things. Catra and Adora being together - what they bring out in each other - challenges both Shadow Weaver and the Horde’s purposes for them. Together, they defy control. You see, if they are able to truly love and connect with each other, then Adora might not conform to what the First One’s want of her and once Catra is able to move beyond the barriers in her relationship with Adora placed there by Shadow Weaver, she can’t be controlled by the Horde anymore either. They are defiance and self-expression and love and I’m totally obsessed with this show, aren’t I?

[swearyshera]

I've been following this blog every day for about 2 years. I can't help but think about how my life will change once it's over. Things change. We learn and grow and life changes. I'm hoping that I can make some changes in my own life to put me in a position where I can FINALLY go back to writing fanfic. This blog has helped me live vicariously in a way - if I can't create fandom stuff at this moment, at least I can watch someone who can, and that gives me hope.

Also, SCORPIA is here! I'm so happy she's back! Now she just needs to get with Perfuma! Scorfuma is life, and also, my Gay Awakening. (I didn't really care about Catradora because I thought Scorfuma was so much better, please don't come after me)

The Scorfuma version of live laugh love is Soft Sweet Scorfuma

Anyway, thank you for your dedication and all the work you put into this over the years. You put good into the world, and my gay heart thanks you for it.

Thanks for coming along for the ride! I know for sure that I have changed, and definitely for the better - I hope you have too. It has been a long and rewarding journey, and basically has changed my life,

And I was so happy to get Scorpia back, even if we don't see all that much of her, because she is an absolute sweetheart who deserves the world.

Hope you enjoy these last couple of weeks :)

[thelogbookproject]

If you could do any licensed TTRPG product, what would it be? Someone else's IP, completely redoing an already established one, anything!

It's complicated. This is a thorny subject for me -- I'm happy to answer, it's just messy.

See, I designed Legend of the Elements. At the time, it was a definitive answer to "What Is the AtLA RPG". Fast forward to when Avatar got an official PbtA RPG, Avatar Legends, and despite years of experience adapting AtLA to PbtA, I was never approached, considered, or asked to contribute in any way. I get why the corporation went with Magpie over itty bitty solo me, but it stung. What hurts much more: Avatar Legends is, imo, far worse than Legend of the Elements 2e (in development a year before AL's announcement). I kinda hate it. I didn't like Masks even before it. I won't get into it here or I'll never stop and I'll hurt my professional standing with people I like. Ask me some other time if you wanna know about that.

Anyway, I'm obviously bitter. A big part of coping has been recognizing how freeing myself from the IP allows my game to improve. This isn't unfounded! LotE was originally Avatar World, and about halfway through development I knew I had enough to actually publish and stripped off the labels, becoming Legend of the Elements, and it vastly improved the game almost overnight. So I'm hesitant about working with IPs in the best of cases. I've been stripping IPs off my designs to improve them forever now, and most of my games start with IPs I love that I want to improve by going beyond them. Media provides ideas, but IPs are just shackles on adaptation work.

Still, I do have answers.

If I get complete freedom to adapt and shape the game, ignoring existing products: Avatar the Last Airbender.

If I'm bound to the character constraints of the IP: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

If I can play outside the plots and structures of the original to my own desires: Disco Elysium.

AtLA is, frankly, personal vindication. Plus my game is better and I want people to play it, for their sakes, but the answer here is driven by a desire for vindication.

She-Ra is so intensely character-driven that I don't think you can make a recognizable SRPoP game without directly doing the IP, and adapting LotE(2e) is actually perfect for it. I actually did it, only viewable on my Patreon or website, DTRPG (rightly) blocked it from sale. I would love to explore that further. As much as Thirsty Sword Lesbians is the Catradora game, I don't think a real She-Ra adaptation works without She-Ra herself in the rules.

I don't want to retell Disco Elysium, in plot, setting, or theme. But the underlying structures of what makes it what it is are eminently open to being worked with, and I have a vision. I have that vision right now, and it's in the early stages of being processed. Maybe it won't go anywhere, but that's what I'm excited about right now, so that's what I'm saying.

I have one more answer. All of those share one trait: I know how I'd do them. So if you want the deepest, truest, dark-of-my-soul answer for what IP I wish I could adapt but don't know how I'd even do it to my satisfaction: The World Ends With You.

It escapes me. I wish I knew how to do it. The firm #3 on my Personal Top 5 Games Ever list, I long for the day that I crack the code. Also: I know of, and respect, Vibe Check. It does capture elements, but it's not what I envision.

So that's my answer. Depending on circumstance, Avatar the Last Airbender, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Disco Elysium, or The World Ends With You.

[aprillikesthings]

ugh my wired headphones are still hurting my head >:(

anyway

s3 ep2 huntara

ahahah I love this one

(if you're new here: i'm rewatching She-Ra for fic-writing purposes, and live-blogging my way through them making commentary and jokes and side notes about random shit. bc this is a REwatch there are many references to later plot points)

is that the Beta Kindergarten

(man I've been making a lot of Steven Universe references in these lately, but yeah I can't look at sandstone slot canyons without thinking "hrr hrr where's Jasper")

(wait has a Jasper cosplayer actually taken photos in one of these in like Utah? a quick image search says no. damn.)

how many times did I look at this establishing shot before I realized this part of the Fright Zone is the ruins of a ginormous spaceship

ALSO "day 135"? I noted yesterday that someone working on the show said sOMEWHERE that each season is about a year and I was like "ehhhh" but I guess that's not far off.

That makes the whole catradora arc even more angsty tbh. For some reason I thought the whole show took place over like a single year or so. But FOUR OR FIVE YEARS?? they pined for each other while trying to murder each other for MULTIPLE YEARS????

awwwwww

Listen. I love this ship. I'm always weak for "complete asshole with tough act is soft for one (1) person"

(tho lemme tell you. do not actually date those dudes irl. *sigh*)

why did so many 80's cartoons have extremely unrealistic quicksand scenes tho

gdi adora

The Crimson Waste is actually just a western bar full of furries. But seriously designing the characters in the bar must've been hella fun

AAHAHAAHH Adora being so, so blatantly gay for Huntara is one of my fave things

Did they need to establish that Adora is into women? Pfft, no. Did they still decide to show us Adora being absolutely smitten on sight for an older, big, buff, badass, butchy lady? YES.

Doesn't hurt that she looks likes this lol

like it's the least subtle thing on EARTH i love it so much

oh no now I want to look up fics

18 of them are explicit. well. I'm just gonna. leave that tab open.

ADORA. YOU COCKBLOCKED HER. RUDE.

lol there's a moment where Glimmer and Bow are like "ha ha we need to talk amongst ourselves" and turns around and Adora is still just staring at Huntara with googly eyes without noticing what Bow even said and lemme tell you, I've been that fucking obvious and oblivious

Huntara literally is like "oh my god you kids are gonna end up DEAD without me. FINE." Meanwhile, Adora:

Plot plot Huntara leads them to a trap and they get hit with tranquilizer darts and dropped into a pit.

that's just a nice shot tbh

EAT SOME DAMN SOUP your girlfriend spent TIME on that

she just refuses to be afraid of him

Anyway yeah this is when we find out he's just a clone of Horde Prime the Big Baddy of the series, Hordak is a "defective" clone, he was sent to "the front lines" to die and fell through a portal into Etheria. "with nothing but a broken ship, I built an empire..." the whole point of the portal is to bring Horde Prime through, which means that's what he was doing when he tried before and ended up with A Magic Baby (Adora) instead.

The animation in the flashback is clearly inspired by Lotte Reiniger which is super cool??

Back to the Crimson Waste, they've gotten themselves out of the hole, and Adora's upset because the whole point of this mission is her getting more info about Mara with the hopes of understanding her own past better

she's RIGHT

"...at least to me..."

LISTEN TO YOUR CUTE NERDY GIRLFRIEND YOU EMO BASTARD

She makes him a nice techy exoskeleton armor thingie

that's a start but c'mon I know you can do better than that

lolol the recorder baby critter KICKS HIM in an obvious "dude really????"

look at him!!! AAHAHAH

i'm gonna go over the image limit and tumblr's gonna cut me off and make me reblog this any minute now but this episode is jUST TOO GOOD

"I like being friends with you, too" ;_;

Huntara's "friends" make fun of her for being a softie while she swings the She-Ra sword around and then Glimmer drops in wooo

yeah I know this is a fight scene but eheheheh

and then they banged

okay they kept fighting but like, c'mon

the "sword point under the chin" thing is just so good and I loved the way they did the angles here

OH SHIT I forgot Huntara had heard of She-Ra

OH HO HO HOW THE TURN TABLES

Anyway Huntara does her little speech about how she also used to be a Horde soldier but left because Hordak was such a dick to his soldiers. "you would know, you were one of us."

called THE FUCK OUT

Huntara does her little "you can't defeat the Horde alone even if you're She-Ra" and she responds with "yah I'm not alone tho"

but also that shot is unnecessarily hot

....i've hit the image limit with two minutes to spare so I went back and deleted one because

hggghh

(not gonna get into how Shadow Weaver's face-touching thing is what made Adora do it here but yeah)

Huntara tells her minions to get lost, admits that the war scared the shit out of her and that's why she ran, but she knows that's bullshit and she promises to help Adora stop the war :D and then leads them to the place they were originally looking for: the ruins of Mara's ship!

AND EPISODE OVER

(gonna...see if any of those fics are any good 👀)

[n7punk]

If there was catradora fic out there that was pretty blatantly copying your work would u wanna know about it?

uhhhh this is a stressful leading question. There's not much I can do about it except ask them to stop and I doubt they would care if they're really "copying". But also like, there's a lot of similarities in AUs, tropes, etc so there's a lot of things I wouldn't consider copying that maybe you could be picking up on (I hope, because it's way better than the alternative). Like when I knew I wanted to write a celebrities AU I avoided reading those AU fics until after, and after DITM I read R&B and realized me and Mal just happened to have a lot of similar ideas about the characters just because of how we interpreted them. And that was basically what kicked off our friendship lol

Anyway if it's like, blatant theft then I guess maybe you can report that to the archive(?) if it's reposting-level but otherwise I don't think there's really anything I have the power to do. It's just a major downer that someone would do that. Which like, I assume they have since you're asking. I don't really go in the tags since I have bookmarks I can go to that I know are good so idk what the general Catradora fandom has been up to on AO3 for a while.

Edit to clarify: like, if someone else writes an AU with a similar premise (and it's not like, as wildly specific as Knifepoint or something), or there's some small details in their fic (like idk accepting the headcanon that Adora hums to purr or whatever) that could have been inspired by me, that's not copying. If they follow my plot beats, use my prose, copy lines etc then it is and that majorly sucks.

On one hand I want to know because I want to see it and go "oh this is fine actually" and on the other hand I don't want to know it's not fine lmao

[stanlunter]

hi i'm the anon who asked you a couple things the other day (you may be able to figure out who i am after reading and that's okay). i guess i just didn't see the posts you were referring to in both cases despite spending a while scrolling through your blog and just reading.

for some clarification about the wlw question, i didn't care about canon or fanon, i was just curious about how your opinions work since i personally do like many of the ships you don't, as well as some we mutually share, and i'm the type of person who wants to learn about differing viewpoints to understand them better despite that.

i'm also wondering how you like scorptra if you're a catradora anti since catra has been verbally abusive to scorpia at the very least, though i'm aware that's arguably better than her treatment of adora but still not healthy until the very end of the last episode.

i hope it's understood that my intention was not to challenge you as a gotcha but simply just to know you a bit better. i may have stopped feeling comfortable being mutuals with you (or just following? i don't remember tbh) for various reasons related to fandom but i still respect you as a person and your opinions so sometimes i come back.

also big W on harlivy and korrasami btw, i love our bi4bi queens

lastly i agree with you 100% on the lunter tiktok video, i love voidpitws' edits very much so i still follow on instagram but i don't support the superiority complex all the canon sibling truthers have when they're wrong 🤷

Hi!

Yeah, that's fine, I understand that a lot of people can have different opinions with me, since a lot of mine are controversional, even if you agree with some

I would love to answer your question about Scorptra and Catradora tho

First of all, catradora being abusive isn't even the only reason why I hate this ship. I talked about it before so I don't wanna fully describe everything again, I will just call them: it ruined s5 and both of Adora and Catra's arcs and that's basically a canon incest, since they werent even just portrayed as adoptive sisters, but even the whole crew, including Nate, have admitted it multipe times. You can try to find some posts about it in anti tags, there is actually a lot of information, if you're actually interested

Now, about abusiveness and Scorptra. Tbh, I really don't understand how can people even compare these two, when these ships are so different, but anyways. I will talk about Scorptra s1-3 and s4 separately, since the whole portal arc has changed so many things

Let's see. Why I consider Catradora as an extremely abusive relationship?

Let's compare Catradora to s1-3 Scorptra

Catra hates Adora and tried to make her suffer as much as possible. Every time she saw Adora, she did everything to hurt her either physically, or mentally, by making her self-hatred stronger than it ever was and used every opportunity to do this. And no, It never was "bc they were at the war". Catra did it bc she just personally hated Adora and wanted to make her feel pain, no one made Catra do this, it was always her personal desire. And even when they were kids, she was the same. And the reason why It's rather "abuser x victim", than "enemies" is bc Adora never treated Catra the same. If in case with Glimmer, It's at least mutual, than with Adora it never was. Catra was always the one who tried to find a fight with Adora. Adora never tried to hurt Catra and never tried to offend her. All she was doing was self-defense. And claiming self-defense as smth even near to abuse, is just horribly and a victim-blaming. Also you can see, every time Adora "hurt" Catra (even tho it was never Adora's fault and was always on Catra's victim complex) she immidiatly tried to apologize and to fix it, just bc she cared about Catra's feelings, even tho it was never her fault and responsibility

What about Scorptra? Well, Catra just never tried to make Scorpia hate herself and feel awful and didn't tried to physically hurt her. We can say Catra did say smth offensive to Scorpia, but it was never bc she wanted to hurt her, but rather bc Catra didn't care about Scorpia yet and Scorpia's love to Catra was confusing to Catra, she didn't even understand that Scorpia loves her, for her Scorpia was just weird and kinda annoying, especially bc for Catra It had to take a lot of time to love someone, so after s2 (White out episode) when she realized that Scorpia actually cares about her and isn't just being annoying, she accepts Scorpia and starts caring about her back. And after that episode she stops thinking about Scorpia as about just someone weird and starts thinking about her as a friend who cares about her like Adora did once

So, after that Catra starts developing her trust and careness to Scorpia. She desides to be honest with Scorpia and lets her in, by letting Scorpia help her. And then, when she realized that Scorpia isn't even "just" care about her, but also is ready to sacrafice everything she had to save Catra, Catra does the same to Scorpia and puts Scorpia's life before her own. And that's her most selfless action, which, Imo is much more selfless than Catra ever was in s1 or s5 with Adora. Bc, if Catra never thought Adora actually cares about her and thought Adora cares about SW and her role much more, with Scorpia it was the first time she saw someone who cares about her more, than about anything else. And when she realizes it, she desides to do the same for Scorpia, bc she values it so much.

And then they spend the happiest day in their life in a Crimson waste, being mutually respectful to each other and mutually loving being around each other

So I genuinely don't understand how can people say Scorpia was abusive there just bc it was a slow-burn for Catra, bc she has the clearest attachment-issues and couldn't believe someone can actually love her due to her life experience. But I think that's what makes their relationship with Scorpia only more important, bc Scorpia managed to "deserve" Catra's trust, love, respect and careness, even tho Catra was actually such a selfish person who is afraid of being used and left and didn't believe anyone can actually care about her. Scorpia was the first person who has shown Catra that she doesn't have to deserve love to be loved (like it was with SW) . And that she's not alone and that there are people who care about her and are not gonna leave her. For who Catra isn't just an "another friend" to use and leave, who doesn't worth staying for (like from her perspective she was for Adora. Which, again, I obviously don't blame Adora for, she didn't have to care only about Catra, It's just what Catra thought about Adora). Even if we compare Adora and Scorpia's leaving:

Adora left the Horde despite Catra, Scorpia left the Horde because of Catra

Adora showed Catra that she doesn't worth staying in the Horde. And Scorpia showed Catra that the only thing that could make her leave the Horde is Catra

Also, every time Adora tried to help Catra or just did something well, Catra was jealous and envy, bc she saw Adora as a competitor, which isn't healthy, especially considering the fact that Adora never saw Catra the same way. And when Scorpia helps Catra and does her job well, Catra sees, respects and thanks her. That's why her in s4 saying Scorpia she's useless was a straight up lie

Here we go to another thing: Catra always saw Adora as her enemy or a rival, not just as a friend. Which created a super unhealthy dynamic between them. Catra was always the envy friend to Adora, who can't be happy for her and always finds a way do downplay her achievements like we've seen in ep1. Catra was not only envy of Adora's achievements and respect, but also of Shadow Weaver's love. Which was a sibling jealous of a mother or a mother figure, their whole "Golden child" and "Scapegoat child" dynamic with an abusive mother figure

And so Catra's envyness lead to hateness and the hateness lead to unhealthy obsessesion Catra had

She made her whole life and whole goal to make Adora "lose", bc she couldn't handle Adora winning her. She was ready to destroy the whole world just bc of it which isn't healthy in any way. And if you're gonna call Scorpia "obsessed" with Catra, remember that Scorpia was the one who was against activating the portal bc of the risks and tried to make Catra change her mind even despite loving her, while Catra still did it bc of her obsessesion with Adora. Catra was litterally addicted and I do not think giving an addict their addition in the end as a praise is healthy. Catra should have been learnt to let her obsessesion go, to get a life, to find other reasons and goals to live, besides hunting Adora. It could be anything. But giving her just what she was so obsessed with is the worst idea Nate could possible choose

And what about Adora?

Even tho Catra was her best friend, Adora never cared about her as much in the first place. Basically, unlike Catra, Adora always had her own life that wasn't only about her love interest. If the only thing Catra had in the Horde was Adora, Adora did have a lot of things besides Catra: she had Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio, she had SW's admiration, she had the Horde's respect and she had her own goals. Catra was in her life too, but she was never the first for Adora. Which is absolutely okay. What is not okay is Catra's life, since she decided to dadicate it to Adora and when Adora left, she became lonely. I can't blame her for that, but Catra's life is Catra's responsility and making it only about one person is just stupid and never ends well. So, that's true that Adora never wanted Catra as much as Catra wanted her. Tbh, Adora never even recalled Catra in a good way after s1, so, as someone who was never a catradora shipper, before s5 I had no idea and no thoughts that Adora actually cares about Catra, not even to mention that she "loves" her and this ship never made sense to me bc it. It was always so one-sided. And the way Catradora shippers are trying to call Scorptra one-sided, makes me think they just skipped the whole s3.

So , for Adora Catra was always just an ex friend who for some reason (since Adora didn't understand it) decided to hate and fight her, just bc for some reason she didn't want to go with her. Catra's behavior never made sense to Adora and that's also strange to me that they didn't want to mention it in s5.

And the worst thing is not even that for Adora Catra was always just an "ex friend", but that she also was a cruel enemy, who made Adora go throught so much trauma, made her hate herself and think that she should die and that her life has no worth, that she only makes things worse and doesn't deserve anything good, while in reality Adora is the most selfless and kind person out of the whole show. Catra tortured Adora, killed a mother of her best friend, terrorized the planed and took away homes and lives of so many innocent people. Adora didn't just despise Catra, but she hated her for everything she has done and s5 has completely erased that fact. And it wasn't the "love-hate" type of hate, It's a hateness people have to terrorists, murderouses and war criminals that take away people's lives and make the life horrible. And that's ridicilous how so many fans really think that's just bc it wasn't directly shown in a kid show means It's not true, while It's very much is and was so heavily implied. Like they think a "war" is when two lesbians are arguing, not when people are losing their homes and families and die. And Adora, as someone who can't stand cruelty and injustice, has litterally left the Horde to protect those people. Making Adora suddenly "love" someone who has done all these things makes no sense and was so stupid and horrible.

Especially considering the fact that her whole arc in s3 was about learning that she's not responsible for Catra's actions, that Catra decided to live like this herself and that Adora doesn't have to baby sit Catra and what SW did to Catra wasn't on Adora either and that she didn't have to be responsible for it. Adora did a right chose to leave an abusive environment and she actually did ask Catra to go with her many times. Yet what do we see in s5? Catra is a victim of everyone. Catra opening the portal and abusing every is now SW's responsibility and not Catra's one, Adora is also blamed for leaving Catra and not for chosing to love some days with Catra over saving the whole world and Adora has to baby sit Catra every fucking minute

It has completely destroyed everything that had been building for 4 seasons and that's terrible not only just for Adora, or even Catra, but for the whole ending and finale season.

So now about Scorptra in s4

While I do agree that their relationship obviously wasn't healthy there and Catra treated Scorpia and everyone around really bad, I don't think their relationship can be called abusive bc of that like catradora during their whole relationship.

First of all, when we talk about characters relationship, we should consider all of their relationship during the whole show in general, not just take out of the context one arc and run with it. If catradora was toxic and abusive on every single stage (when they were kids in the Horde, when they were enemies and when they became friends - couple), Scorptra, like I've already described it, wasn't. They mutually cared about each other and Catra didn't treat Scorpia horribly. S1-s3 was the default of their relationship and s4 wasn't what Scorpia and Catra's relationship is normally, it was what they turned into due to the stress and the whole shit that has happened in the finale of s3. Which doesn't justify Catra ofc, but it does show that Catra actually cares about Scorpia and what was in s4 was rather an exception, than what their relationship actually is. During it, Catra hated herself for what she did, she became like a "full" villain, she was angry on herself and on everyone else and focused on her goal to destroy the rebelion and started ignoring everything else that was and still is important to her, like Scorpia. So, after such a huge action, that has changed the war so much, that Catra had more things to care about than ever. What Im saying is that Catra's anger in s4 wasn't aimed at Scorpia. Scorpia just happened to be a scapegoat of Catra's stress and guilt. While with Adora, Catra did aim her anger exactly at her. And in this case the whole "they were at war" excuse fits much better, since Catra's anger at Scorpia was caused by the stress at the war and the portal, while dor Adora it was just a pure haterd. So, does it make it okay? Absolutely not, it still was unhealthy. But does it change everything and make Catra's relationship with Scorpia and Adora incomparable? Absolutely yes.

And what confirmes this fact is Catra's reaction there:

First of all, Catra didn't realize how much her words hurt Scorpia. Like I said before, Catra didn't mean to hurt her in the first place, she just wanted to be left alone and to put her anger on someone. And when Scorpia says Catra is a bad friend, she immidiatly realizes it and feels bad about hurting Scorpia, feels guilt. Something she never felt while hurting Adora. When she was hurting Adora, she was enjoying it and didn't think there was her fault, she put it on Adora. However with Scorpia, just when Catra realizes she hurt Scorpia, she immidiatly gets that It was her fault and that Scorpia didn't deserve it. And as we see later, Catra immidiatly stopped acting like this towards Scorpia and started treating her better (for example, sharing her thoughts and feelings with her, as a friend), the only problem is that it was too late.

When Hordak asked Catra where was Entrapta's recording, Catra lied to him, saying she didn't find it, bc she knew if Hordak found out Scorpia has damaged it, she would get in troubles.

So she takes Hordak's aggression on herself, instead of letting him hurt Scorpia. Just like she did in the prison scene, when she didn't let Scorpia help her get out bc Scorpia would have troubles bc of that. This shows us how much Catra actually cares about Scorpia, even when she is in the wrong and acts toxic.

And the saddest thing is that they actually could be together, happy and in healthy relationship, if only the creators decided to let Catra let go her obsessesion with Adora, for example, in the Crimson waste. I really love the idea of them staying there in s3, instead of returning to the Horde. It seems like it would be much better for everyone. Or at least, if s5 was written better and Catra actually had at least some screen time with Scorpia, they also could leave others and return to the Crimson waste as they wanted to.

So, It's not like I look at Catra yelling at Scorpia in s4 and think "ohh, that's so cute, they should kiss now", It's that their whole relationship was beautiful, complex and dramatic. Bc Catra could be happy with Scorpia, but her obsessesion was stronger and it ruined everything. I'll dare to call it "doomed yuri", bc of how tragic Catra's issues made it

Well, I think that's all, hope I did answer your questions

[spopsalt]

https://www.tumblr.com/godmodebeginswithlesbians/732567688496431104/we-need-less-sanitized-queer-stories-youre-the

I cannot believe the amount of notes this post has of people agreeing with it. I have no idea what The Locked Tomb is so I can’t speak on that, but regarding She-Ra, ever since the finale, I’m one of the people who’s been agreeing with the statement that OP is mocking here. To clarify, though, I’m all for less sanitized LGBT stories, but I want them to still be well written, make actual sense narratively, and deliver a positive message for a target demographic of children, all which She-Ra failed at.

I read some of the notes and aside from the typical nonsense I’m used to seeing toxic She-Ra fans spew, there are people who reblogged this defending She-Ra while simultaneously admitting that they DIDN’T EVEN WATCH THE SHOW. Ofc they’re not gonna understand or interpret any of the criticism in good faith if they haven’t even watched the damn show. That’s the brainless mob mentality that’s to be expected on this site.

Anyway, as a writer who majored in animation, seeing posts and notes like this is so disheartening. I don’t have much hope for the entertainment industry (especially animation) or the LGBT community. Both have proven that their standards are lower than dirt and that they all have piss poor media literacy and critical thinking skills that lead them to harassing and hating on anyone who dares criticize the media that they blindly worship. It’s insulting as a writer and sets a bad precedent that professionals can just produce poorly written fan fiction with a budget that validates childish NPCs who eat it up as long as it caters to their sensibilities and is under the guise of progressivism for kids so it can be praised as “groundbreaking.” It makes me wanna steer clear of this industry entirely tbh .

Yeah, my problem isnt that it's not santized, my problem is that not only is it romantized, but targeted towards kids, kids are seeing this and thinking it's ok, again bubbline and lumity are much, much better repsentation in kids shows, I wish that people could just admit that Catradora isnt good now that we do have good rep in kid shows now but I guess there's nothing we can do. Even Star vs The Forces of Evil did it better when it showed that Jackie Lynn Thomas and Star Butterfly were bisexual which is cool. Now both were kinda ambigious but they couldnt do much since it was disney and its still better than romantizing toxic relationships to children.

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

On the topic of EoT’s suspension and whether or not that’s a self ask anon, it’s very much likely bc I’ve never really seen any of LO’s fans use her exact name calls for anything or think they’re being creative by coming up with a clever insult for something she doesn’t like, or copy her exact phrasing word for word, not that I’ve really paid much attention to that anyway, however….I was once a LO fan, and my ex as far as I know, most likely still is. Even when we were still together, they sometimes threw around specific terms LO uses when talking about stuff ie “white favoritism” in terms of writing characters, shipping and character lineup, “Poe faced” about a mobile game we played together coming out with a new season at the time and their ‘concern’? over it being unnecessarily ‘edgy’, “gay reylo” about catradora, and “nazi/fascism/abuse apologist” about making their main villain oc irredeemable and making sure not to write them like rebecca sugar would,etc and i hate to say it but they’re a pretty good example of a sheep and not even just when it comes to Lilian. I think what started to have me go down this rabbit hole of how problematic and awful LO really is, is how I kept getting this vibe/fear of accidentally offending her, if I were to interact with her, basically walking on eggshells, which is not good, and brings me back to my own past traumas with toxic abusive assholes I’ve dealt with. If anything I still kind of enjoy MO’s art and videos, but I’ll have to watch in a way that doesn’t go straight to LO’s pocket.

And I kind of have the feeling LO’s influence may have also contributed to even my friendship ending with my ex too, bc even when we broke up as a couple, we were still okay with being friends, and even while I thought things were fine between us after awhile, apparently things weren’t on their end bc they pulled away from me completely over how similar our coming outs were; they told me after reflecting on it, they noticed this pattern of similarities between them and their timings, basically accusing me of copying them and tacking on their labels just so they could notice me? I’m sorry but don’t flatter yourself. Because that is farrrrrrrr from the truth and it literally took me over 6 yrs to come to terms with being gay, going back n forth on whether I was actually bi or lesbian, and even with my pronouns, I am comfortable with going by she/they, and even with those I still contemplated over for awhile bc I always had this fear of ‘faking’, so I made sure to take my time in figuring these things out, regardless whom I was interested in, not letting anyone define me and they knew that. While they said I never did anything objectively wrong, it’s like they just picked apart any “questionable” thing about me and used it as a reason to drop me when she/they were never like that at allllll, more so the opposite, and seeing them act this way felt like such a betrayal because I never saw it coming from someone I considered one of my best friends, we literally started dating on our 7th friendship anniversary the year before. We almost made it to a year and despite their hectic work schedule, I knew they still did their best and I was nothing but understanding and supportive and loved them no matter what…I just..feel like it could have been handled so much better and that we could have come to some sort of understanding. I made it clear that I wanted to hold myself accountable for any flaws and mistakes I may have made throughout our relationship and apologizing for my timings coming off a certain way that offended them…taking responsibility for myself, my actions, any misunderstandings, open to having a civil conversation, call things out and clear up any confusion, but they just weren’t here for it and I don’t think it would have mattered what I had or hadn’t explained at that point, not if they were just going to pick it apart in a black and white/all or nothing way like a certain youtuber they sheep over. Shortly after Christmas, I found they had me blocked/removed on everything… Also they didn’t know I was getting those walking on eggshell vibes from LO either, I never told them, mostly bc they seemed to be defensive of her and I was still trying to figure out my feelings on that, not knowing if it was intuition or just me being paranoid. I’m so sorry if this is all over the place, but I also recall seeing an ask here about friendships falling apart bc of LO’s influence and I felt I may as well work that in and vent a little. If LO encourages questioning the validity of someone’s labels and cutting them off over it, that is truly fucked up, considering she said that if someone identifies a certain way, you don’t question it unless you want your teeth knocked out, yet she also misgenders those she doesn’t like… those inconsistencies alone, among many, are a red flag.

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