#chipped Catra… need i say more

[mydastouch]

I’ve noticed that I’m actually obsessed with women who are crazy. Who have lost their touch on reality. A tad bit traumatized. A lot bit traumatized. Something about actively declining mental health is just ✨chefs kiss✨so so hot my god

[justmenoworries]

"You just hate that Catra got a redemption arc!"

Wrong.

I hate that Catra got a bad redemption arc. Where everyone is just suddenly cool with her because she gave a very unconvincing and very unspecific apololgy. Once.

S1-4 actually did a good job of setting it up. It's made clear multiple times that, yes, while Catra did have a shitty childhood and most of her issues can be chalked up to Shadow Weaver being a horrible mother, it still doesn't mean she's automatically in the right. Both the narrative and the characters contiuously call Catra out on her actions and on her insistence that everything bad she does is actually someone else's fault. Adora literally gets a whole-ass speech in the s3 finale where she tells Catra that, no, the bad things Catra has done and does aren't on Adora, or Hordak, or even Shadow Weaver - it's on Catra. It's always been on Catra. She doesn't get to pretend to be a victim. She made her choice. And she has to live with that. S4 has Double Trouble repeat those exact same points word for word.

S5 is where Stevenson completely fumbled it. Because starting with s5, Catra is suddenly absolved of the most important thing in a redemption arc: Taking accountability.

"But Celty," I hear you say, "Catra does take accountability! She apologizes to the people she's hurt! She says she's working on her anger issues!"

Yeah, one measly "uwu I'm sowwy" isn't enough to make up for, let's see: kidnapping, torture, attemtped murder, actual murder, attemtpted genocide, actual genocide and years upon years of physical and emotional abuse.

Two characters in the cast react to Catra suddenly showing up in Camp Good Guy like they should: Frosta and Netossa. And both are immediately convinced that Catra is actually nice now, because Adora said so and so all is forgiven. No need for Catra to actually work to earn these people's trust. No reason to elaborate on how complicated Catra's sheer presence must make everything, because how are the Princesses supposed to feel about suddenly having to work with the ex-leader of the Horde? The woman who took an active part in attacking and destroying their kingdoms?

Other SPOP crits have pointed this out, but it's very convenient that both Scorpia and Mermista, two people Catra has hurt in a far more personal manner, (the destruction of Salineas and the continued abuse toward Scorpia) are chipped and therefor absent from the Good Guy team once Catra and the Best Friend Squad return to Etheria. Once again, Catra is absolved of having to put any work into redeeming herself. Even when everyone unites in the finale, Catra doesn't get to apologize to Scorpia because Scorpia forgets all her character development from s4 and just hugs Catra like nothing bad ever happened between them. Mermista meanwhile is stuck making a joke about Hordak just being let off the hook for war crimes, which is doubly ironic because Catra is right fucking there being portrayed as an uwu poor kitty-cat. We don't get to see how Mermista feels about the woman who destroyed her homeland suddenly being acquitted because she's She-Ra's girlfriend now. Let's not even start with the non-reaction Entrapta has to seeing Catra again. Catra, who Entrapta genuinely believed was her friend, and who not only had her shipped off to Beast Island and, in her mind, certain death, but also let Hordak, who Entrapta had a bond with, believe that Entrapta betrayed and abandoned him. Gentle reminder that Entrapta was so heartbroken about the fact that she really was abandoned on Beast Island by everyone that she started to succumb to the signal in an instant and would have actually died if Bow hadn't snapped her out of it with her hyperfixation. Gentle reminder that Entrapta is capable of holding a grudge, as in s3 she calls Adora out for seemingly having left her behind in the Fright Zone. But because it's Catra, suddenly Entrapta magically doesn't mind having to tend to the woman who shocked her unconscious and had her shipped off to a violent death.

Oh and let's not forget the elephant in the room: Not once, in the entirety of s5 does Catra ever take responsibility for killing Angella. Glimmer suddenly forgets all about Catra being the one who indirectly murdered Angella. She doesn't bring it up once and instead is slowly browbeaten into making nice with Catra through solitary confinement. The Glimmer/Catra friendship in s5 is so forced and so out of nowhere. Bow also forgets that Catra kidnapped him and his best friend/love interest to the Fright Zone and that because of her, Glimmer was suffering from her powers going haywire for quite a while, which, may I remind you, left her with spasms painful enough to have her writhing on the floor unable to move. What is Bow's reaction to Catra when she joins the team? To gush about how cute her sneeze is. I hate it here.

As for the whole "she's working on herself" - no she isn't.

S5 Catra is the exact same person as s1-3 Catra. Only now she gets away with her bs because the writers decided she's a good guy now.

S5 Catra is still a violent, self-serving, abusive asshole. She still blames others for her fuck-ups, still resorts to verbal and physical abuse to deal with her emotions, still would rather have the entire world destroyed than have Adora's world not revolve solely around her. Honestly, Catra saying that she always loved Adora is laughable, because like an episode earlier she left Adora in the woods, crying her eyes out and begging for Catra to stay, during possibly the hardest time of Adora's life. "But she came back!1!!" She came back after, once again, making Adora feel like absolute shit for trying to save people. Not to mention one of the reasons Adora was so deadset on stopping Horde Prime, even at the cost of her own life, was that Catra literally begged her to. Catra told Adora that if Horde Prime wasn't stopped, they'd all be looking toward a fate worse than death. Then suddenly towards the finale, Catra changes her tune and whines that Adora has decided to take the Heart, making it out like Adora just loves playing hero, when the show literally spells it out that Adora is the only one who can do this. Everyone else would literally die if they took the Heart. Adora/She-Ra is the last hope Etheria, no, the universe has at this point. Again, that's not just in Adora's head, that's something the plot itself confirms over and over again. But we're still supposed to side with Catra when she pushes Adora into the dirt and victim-blames her.

[antispopausandstuff]

What do you think about people comparing catra to Caitlyn from arcane

ah, i had a feeling i'd be asked about something along these lines.

okay, so, just to get this out of the way:

i'm aware that Arcane s2 has very polarizing opinions, points of views, and thoughts from the community, and, provided it's nothing extreme, they're all valid. though my words are largely subjective, i want to apply as much objectivity as possible to create a better picture, rather than complete bias with no desire for discussion.

s2, in my opinion, wasn't as well-written as it could've been. i don't hate it, but i would've made different writing choices for the characters, their arcs, etc., and i feel the ending was lackluster as a result of lack of closure. this includes Jinx's own ending, Isha, Vi's cycle of self-destruct and complicated family, and how i feel there was not enough screentime for the plots and characters given, especially Ekko, Mel, Kino, and Ambessa. and i do feel like the writing choices negatively affected Caitlyn's character, as well, even if i do understand and sympathize with her as a person.

objectively speaking, Caitlyn's dictatorship ( i believe that's what it is, iirc ) was more on-screen than Catra's, but Catra's crimes was heavier, quantity wise, including universal genocide.

because of SPOP's disregard for "show, don't tell", amongst several other factors ( Catra being a creator's pet being the main one ), there is little to no actual weight to her actions, even with the main cast. if there is consequences, it's either more personal than it should be, her mental breakdowns or Horde Prime chipping her, or fleeting, the destruction of Salineas. this is likely why people don't care much for Catra's actions, because there's no legitimate consequences that aren't just her being sad // distressed.

but, while not the best, Arcane writers take into consideration the impact of and to the people. Caitlyn's decisions did have consequences, and it affected more than just her. it changed Zaun, and with Silco and Jinx's absence, the people were anxious and needing a beacon in order to feel safe and empowered.

however, i don't think it's as simple as comparing Caitlyn to Catra.

in the eyes of the people, it wouldn't matter, obviously. as a result of taking her grief and thirst for vengeance out on them, the people of Zaun felt even more unsafe when they were already suffering.

but to us, as the audience, we can empathize with grief blinding us and leading us to making poor decisions that end up being detrimental to our and everyone else's health. keyword: empathize.

Caitlyn still hurt people. there is no denying that. i am simply saying that we can understand where she was coming from and that her grief was taken advantage of by Ambessa.

to their world, it's black and white. people suffer and // or die at the hands of someone in power.

to us, it's more or less than that.

still wanting to remain as objective i can be, i will say Caitlyn's are far easier to remember and hold against her, and rightfully so. but i believe that Catra's are worse and should've been displayed as worse, rather than stated or turned around to be a way for us to feel bad for her own downfalls.

now, let's move onto Caitlyn and Vi // Catra and Adora.

like with the season, i prefer s1 CaitVi over s2.

for me, the divide and conflict felt too similar to how their relationship originally started out and was too repetitive. it felt like the writers wanted another reason for them to break apart, when there was a lot of time spent to them forming together.

but i think CaitVi has more room to grow than C // A ever really did.

for one, Caitlyn and Vi have cared for each other more than they've hurt each other. even when they were at odds in s1, there was no point in the story where they left one or the other to die. if something bad happened, it was by circumstance, not by choice.

but Catra had always hurt Adora more than she cared for her. from physically harming her to degrading her, engaging in extreme sadism, and nearly killing her, purposefully, on multiple occasions, there's no actual evidence that Catra deeply cares for Adora, or that she cared to begin with.

for another, Caitlyn had more reason than Catra. Catra was given multiple chances to make better choices, but she never did and it was intentional and out of spite.

what was Caitlyn going to do with the fact her mother was killed, that her girlfriend's sister was the murderer, and that her girlfriend stopped her from doing from killing the culprit because she thought she'd kill a kid instead?

of course, it was highly likely that she would've killed Isha. again, blinded by grief. but Caitlyn didn't think that way. in her mind, she has more evidence of being an excellent shot than not, so, obviously, the possibility of her killing the child was 0, right?

( and i don't think Caitlyn cheated on Vi with Maddie. i read the end of their argument as a break-up, especially because Vi disappeared. )

and, for one last thing, even when she knew Vi didn't trust her and kept fighting with her, Caitlyn still tried to help.

overall, i think CaitVi did have a... meh(?) ending, but i still prefer them over C // A. if nothing else, for the foundation.

i don't think Caitlyn and Catra are the same. i just think the Arcane writers had more respect for their audience than SPOP did.

[baileybeez]

My Top 10 Catradora Moments (My Opinion Obviously)

10. Adora Has Always Loved Catra

This is the moment I believe Adora firmly knows she's in love with Catra. I know she's in love with Catra beforehand but I believe this is the first time she realizes 'I'm in love with Catra'. Adora is getting ready to face an uncertain outcome with Horde Prime and she's trying to remain strong. But we can see glimpses of her looking for Catra wanting to her come back. We then see as she's heading to the Heart of Etheria, memories are being projected. The first one that comes up that really hits Adora is Catra. Catra saying her last and classic 'Hey Adora' and Adora is at first thrilled she's back. But then it changes to Catra when she was younger training in the fright zone, Catra from when she was chipped, Catra from Season 4, Catra from season's 1-3 and then current Catra. This to me screams 'Adora has always loved Catra despite all the hardships they've endured'. Even though she realizes deep down, this isn't the real Catra, she wanted to reciprocate her touch. But then the fake Catra disappears as Adora is almost off the edge.

Also this scene brought that iconic 'Somewhere Only We Know' tiktok.

9. God She's Cute When She Laughs

Everyone knows I'm a sucker for fluff so this little moment always stuck out to me. We've seen Catra blush before and she looked at Adora's New She Ra Form and was like 'Damn...she kinda bad.' But this one was so sweet and wholesome. Catra at first is annoyed cause they're teasing her about how cute her helmet is and at first you think she's gonna be defensive about it. At first she is but then she see's Adora laugh and freezes. Adora is so happy Catra is getting along with her friends and is back to the Catra she grew up with. And Catra just smiles at Adora, any frustration she had melted away.

8. Princess Prom

Ya'll this episode was the reason I gave She-Ra a shot. I saw this scene floating around online and I just had to find out what was going on. At the time, I had only recently accepted myself as sapphic and this was one of the first scenes that caught my attention during that time. There were already strong hints of Catradora later becoming a thing but this scene hit differently. We get to see the dynamic these two would have for a few more seasons. The shift between them as they become enemies while still seeing they still care for one another.

7. It's Over, He's Gone

The end moment with these two in She-Ra was fantastic. Hearing Catra's soft 'Adora' as the two smile at each other was adorable. Adora reaches out her hand to Catra and reassures her that it's over and that Horde Prime is gone. These two had gone through so much because of the Horde. And now, their foreheads touch as they're just happy they made it to their happy beginning for each other. With Catra still being snarky and saying 'Good riddance'. It's a good final moment where the two can be happy. And now this just makes me wish we got a She-Ra movie.

6. Please Just Stay

First of all, if you haven't already please read Don't Go by Nate Stevenson. It's a fanfiction he created that takes place after Save the Cat and really helps highlight this and other scenes I'm about to get into later. It's also just really good. But Catra beforehand is struggling to figure out why Adora saved her and dealing with the aftermath of what Horde Prime did to her. She and Adora just had a big fight with Adora telling Catra she never hated her. We find out later, the chip on Catra is tracking the ship they're on and they need to get it off. With Catra needing to confront Entrapta (who she also didn't end things on good terms with) and Adora. Adora tells Catra once they're done, they can drop her off and she won't have to see any of them again. We see this crumbles Catra's usual strong self as she lets herself be vulnerable for a moment. Grabbing Adora's wrist and then her hand requesting that she stays, Adora also blushes. Catra also comes up with an idea to read what Hordak's planning since their minds are connected. Catra knows Adora will continue to fight Horde Prime and knows she'll be reckless. She just asks Adora to stay with her with two two holding each other. I love this moment as we see the two work together and slowly build their bond again.

5. You Coming?

As Adora is succumbing to the virus and Catra calls out to her, we get this moment of Adora's wish. She's back home with Catra, Glimmer and Bow as they're all getting ready for Scorpia's Princess Prom. Adora wants desperately to have this future with her friends and home happy. She's slowly learning to be selfish after she's been stuck trying to give and give as She-Ra. And she wants a life with Catra, the person she's come to love and married to in this vision. Stevenson confirmed couples in Etheria have something to show they have ties to each other. Catra is wearing Adora’s wing buckle on her shirt and Adora is wearing Catra's head piece on her dress. At first, Adora is sad because part of her wants to embrace this future but doesn't think she deserves this. But seeing Catra, the person she's married to in this version ask her if she's coming with them. She can't help but want to follow her. Even when Adora was dying, all she wanted was a peaceful life with her friends and the person she loved.

4. We're Going Home

Save The Cat in general is a great episode and my personal favorite of She-Ra's. Adora manages to save Catra with the help of her friends as Catra is still unconscious from the fall and whatever Horde Prime did to her. Adora gently holds Catra and telling her she's not done yet and that they're going home. Adora's healing powers manage to work on Catra as she wakes up. She also says her classic 'Hey Adora' in a very weak voice. And Adora is so relieved that she just embraces Catra and and Catra is shocked. We see how hesitant Catra is accept Adora's embrace but eventually she does while letting out a deep breath of relief. With her purring being the last thing we hear before the episode ends. Catra purrs mostly when she's around Adora, she's always happy to be accepted by Adora. This description from Nate Stevenson also really helps sells the moment too.

'They stay that way for a long time, Catra’s face tucked into Adora’s shoulder, Adora gently cradling Catra’s head. Adora is careful not to hug Catra too hard or make her feel restrained, anticipating the moment that Catra will start to pull away — but Catra doesn’t. She hangs on so tightly it hurts, her claws digging through Adora’s jacket and into her back, latching into her like she did when she was a kitten and didn’t know how much her claws could hurt. Adora tries not to wince, tries not to move a single muscle, worried that if she does the spell will break and Catra will struggle away, appalled at having shown weakness. But Catra doesn’t let go. And so neither does Adora.'

3. I'm Not Leaving

Save the Cat and The Heart Part 2 have my favorite Catradora moments and this one is one of them. We saw how Catra came back to Adora when she needed her and almost died trying to save her. Shadow Weaver comes in though and sacrifices herself with Adora and Catra reuniting. This time it's Catra rescuing Adora and coming to her aid instead of the other way around. Adora is struggling to use the failsafe and realizes it might not work. She tells Catra to get far away from where she is and that there's no more time. Saying how she can save everyone and touches her forehead with her own. While also stating how it's okay and she's ready. It's heavily implied Adora is going to die trying to use the Failsafe and Catra stands firm on staying with Adora. Saying whatever happens she'll stay here with her. And we see that as Horde Prime's virus is trying to take control of the Heart, Catra is facing it with Adora.

2. You Matter To Me

I love the scene of Adora trying to save Catra from the chip she's being controlled under. Adora is trying desperately to bring Catra back out and trying not to hurt her despite Catra attacking Adora. Then Catra does break free from control and tells Adora she should have stayed away and asks why she came back when she doesn't matter. With Adora gently holding her face telling Catra she matters to her. This is also asked later again by Catra in Don't Go.

“Why did you come back for me?” she demands.

“I —“ Adora’s voice trails off in the silence. Catra doesn’t let go. The only sound is the soft, muffled humming of the ship’s engines as it moves through space, away from Horde Prime. “Because…” She trails off again.

What is she supposed to say?

“Because…you’re Catra,” she finishes weakly.

Because at the end of the day, Adora will always care for Catra. Then Catra get's possessed again as she walks towards the edge fighting to not be controlled by Horde Prime. Adora reminds Catra she's never listened to anyone in her life and asks if she's going to start now. Catra looks amused as she just says Adora's an idiot with Adora agreeing, tears in her eyes. Adora then says she's going to take Catra home as Catra breaks free from Horde Prime saying 'Promise?'. Adora holds out her hand saying 'I promise!'. This is obviously a parallel to when they were kids and they promised to look out for each other. It's such a heartfelt and touching scene

I Love You

'Catra she distracts you, confuses you.' - Shadow Weaver

'You Etherians are all alike. Such strong connections to one another, it's what makes you weak.' - Horde Prime

And yet their 'weakness' and 'distraction' saved the universe. The Catradora confession scene is number one as it is a finale to Catra and Adora's character arcs. Adora is dying and seemingly getting ready to accept her fate. That there won't be a happy future for her. But then she hears Catra still reaching out and calling for her to wake up. Catra hasn't given up on Adora and Adora never gave up on Catra, so she shouldn't start now.

Adora does try to reach for Catra but doesn't quite make it with her saying it's too late and that she failed. Catra reassures her that she's got Adora and won't let go. In desperation and perhaps wanting to finally tell Adora, Catra says.

'Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please just this once, stay!'

We hear Catra and Adora's theme Promise in the background playing this whole time which we haven't heard since the episode Promise. Last time it was Catra leaving Adora to follow her own path and Adora learning to let go of Catra. Now, it's Catra reaching out for Adora as Adora takes her hand. Adora is blushing as Catra has tears in her eyes begging for Adora to stay. Adora does wake up in awe asking if Catra loves her. Catra is blushing while smiling calling Adora an idiot. Then she looks surprised as Adora just smiles at Catra saying she loves her too. They then kiss as Adora is finally able to activate the Failsafe but the two are too busy kissing.

I also want to add in the storyboard version of this scene where Catra says 'We always said it would be you and me, together at the end. But not now, okay?'.

Honorable Mentions Down Below:

[manic-sapphic]

~~absolutely love that adora kinda looks insulted when she demands prime let catra go and his response is "i'll give her to you - if you want her.."

i hear the look on her face saying "oooh you mf'er how dare you - ofc i want this btch why else would i be here ?? i want her and only her tbh - (i just don't know it yet but i will def doomslay ur entire flagship if u don't gimme this kitty fr")

- (every time i watch catra hold herself, just tryna keep from falling apart - i fall apart. just a teeny tiny bit. itty bitty shred of my jagged stone heart chips off, but idc tho - she's worth it <3)

( also - the way adora tries to stand but her legs give way beneath her is just another addition to the list of reasons it's all so heart breakingly gut wrenching [yee i combo'd the phrases - it feels warranted fr] cause the fact she can't stand tells the audience she's gotta be in a lot of pain too that is only healed after she suddenly transforms- and she's ignoring that pain, so focused on catra that we don't even see her react to it aside from being unable to stand.. damnit adora <3 )

~~sooo the promise moment really is just - ahhh. gets to me. i read it as this unspoken question that catra knows she doesn't need to explain - she just needs to say one word and knows adora will understand what she's truly asking -

"promise?" - i read this as catra not just asking if adora promises to take her home - but asking for a much deeper, broader hope of reinstating their first promise. to stick together and look out for each other.

a promise that was broken by both of them tbh but at this point catra decided to keep it for what she figured would be her last chance to do so in corridors, and then here in save the cat adora comes back and holds up her side of their promise as well.

after all that time apart as enemies, they each risked their lives and more and fulfilled a promise that seemed long forgotten. and i see catra here as putting forth a desperate, hopeful plea to agree on renewing that promise for good- and not just taking her home, but acknowledging that what home really means is the two of them staying together, no matter what.

and without hesitation, adora replies, "i promise."

she understands what catra's really asking; imo there are so many words that pass between them during and just after save the cat that are never actually said - thank you's and apologies and explanations that they mutually recognize and know the other feels and genuinely means w/o ever needing to make each other say it.

mistakes were made on both sides & they've both realized by then that sticking together was and always had been what they needed to do, cause they were finally starting to admit to themselves that what they both really needed all along, more than anything else, was each other. <3

ps i thought i'd tack on my previous rant about adora choosing to jump down after catra in save the cat cause that moment makes my heart implode every time~

(& cause when she does that - it's her keeping the promise that she had just restored. it's her determined refusal to ever, ever break it again - no matter what. even if it kills her - just like catra in the finale, fighting the monster and refusing to leave when adora tells her to. these lovelies would much rather die w each other than live without the other - and they definitely figure that out the hard way, but the only thing that really matters is that they do figure it out~~)

---jump in save the cat rant---

when adora chooses to jump down after catra, the fact that she is, innately, she-ra is still something adora has almost no clue of whatsoever. her expression lingers in the frame just before she throws herself down after catra, recalling the fixed look of equally determined resolve we see on catra’s own face in corridors when the decision to save glimmer (and, yes, most importantly to catra, save adora by extension) is cemented in her mind; a decision catra makes, mind you, not expecting to survive it. and imo, same goes for adora & this moment in save the cat.

adora chooses to follow catra into the darkness, despite her currently regarding her connection to she-ra as gone and having no expectation of manifesting the nearly invincible power she could rely on from being she-ra in the past (and therefore lacking any way to heal catra, even if she could get them both to safety, there’s no way she’s unaware that catra’s body is pretty much guaranteed to be broken beyond repair after the shock her nervous system got from prime when disabling the chip, coupled with the long fall.)

and to me - the most poignant thing this tells the audience about adora making this choice is that she didn’t leap down after catra because she was clinging to the hope that, somehow, she could still save her.

instead, she willingly fell to depths unknown, the landing completely obscured by shadows that she just watched consume catra, simply because she knew that catra would be down there all on her own, and there was absolutely no fucking way that adora wasn’t going to make damn sure she was there to hold her. even if that meant jumping after her and possibly dying down there together. it just meant that much to adora for catra not to have to face the end alone... i mean, wtf dude, it's jaw-dropping in the best way ever <3

[loganofthenorth]

For those that saw my other Shera Swap AU post, sorry this took so long. I got invested in an SMP Minecraft Server recently and forgot about this. 😅

For those who haven’t, I’m making a Shera Swap AU! I’m designing the characters in Hero Forge because I don’t have the patience to draw.

Anywho, here is Adora as promised! More info below the cut off, warning for spoilers if I actually write this.

In this swap AU, Adora isn’t the one to find the sword and be chosen by it. Catra is. Ergo, she is not convinced by Bo and Glimmer to snap out of it, but instead Catra ends up leaving the Horde to join the Princess Alliance and Adora, being a rule follower that sees Catra as a traitor, stays loyal to the Horde.

Her design at the start of the story is pretty much just cannon Adora with her Force Captain Badge:

But in ‘season 2’ of my AU, she looks very different. Mostly due to loyalty to the Horde and battles with Catra.

I’m thinking Catra scratches her face in a desperate attempt to escape, or out of anger for something Adora says to her. Either way it’s enough to leave a scar so it will most likely be a really intense scene.

Also thinking Adora gets her hair burnt off, either in a fight with the Princess Alliance or by Shadow Weaver. Catra will taunt her for it regardless.

She gets edgier too, since when she starts to realize the problems in the Horde’s logic she digs her feet in the ground. She doesn’t want to admit that she turned against Catra, then eventually Bo, and lost so much of herself fighting the wrong battle.

Also when Catra gets her cool Shera Sword Adora gets huge Sword Envy so Bow makes her a cool sword.

Adora is still a people pleasing perfectionist in this AU. Even more so, actually, since she doesn’t end up turning against the Horde. She becomes even more vulnerable to Shadow Weaver’s manipulation after Catra leaves, and often just does whatever she’s told by Shadow Weaver. Glimmer will eventually start rebelling against Shadow Weaver and pushing for Adora to advocate for herself and her team.

As Adora gets more confident, more frustrated with the Horde’s lack of progress, and more angry towards the Princesses, she ends up climbing the Horde’s ranks through her own strategic genius and skills. I think the turning point will be Princess Prom, when Catra captures Glimmer and uses her as a bargaining chip against Hordac. Hordac pretends he doesn’t care, but Adora can tell he does. So she plans an invasion on Bright Moon to get Glimmer back. While in there, she manages to steal documents about Bright Moon’s defences in order to make more efficient plans in the future. Unfortunately they lose Entrapta during the invasion, more on that later.

There will probably be a point during the invasion where Catra catches Adora and they fight. Catra tries to break Adora from Shadow Weaver’s manipulation, but Adora has already broken free from her mentor’s influence. “You captured my best friend and used her as a hostage. I don’t need Shadow Weaver to tell me right from wrong anymore, I can see for myself what needs to be done to establish peace and order. Shadow Weaver is a coward, and won’t allow the Horde to succeed. I am willing to take matters into my own hands.” ~ said before calling on Entrapta to send an army of robots to invade Bright Moon.

Adora often works as the team’s leader, and supervises everyone else’s roles. She’ll often give herself the responsibility of dealing with Catra. She’s a lot more respectful to her team than Catra was in the cannon show. She takes into account their strengths, weaknesses, comfort levels, etc when assigning them roles.

She often gives Kyle the job of fetching supplies for the others, and encourages him to motivate the rest of the team. Kyle is never given anything to do alone because Adora is worried he’ll get hurt.

Bow is often tasked with making sure Entrapta and Glimmer don’t do anything too reckless and settles disputes within the team. Basically takes over the leader position if Adora isn’t able to. Bow’s role in plans is usually to hide somewhere strategic and snipe enemies with his bow, or help Entrapta in a Mission Control kind of role.

Glimmer is usually the muscle in plans, and one of the people fighting alongside Adora.

Laudie and Rogelio also fight alongside Adora by default, but they’re usually Adora’s go to people to send elsewhere if the group has to split up.

After the Bright Moon invasion, Adora is hard on herself for losing the Horde’s greatest asset. The only reason Hordac doesn’t obliterate her for it is because she did succeed in saving his daughter.

After learning that Glimmer has a connection to the Moonstone, Adora plans *another* invasion on Bright Moon to steal the crystal. Shadow Weaver refuses to allow it, but Hordac is concerned by how weak Glimmer gets after her connection with the stone made her stronger. Shadow Weaver is imprisoned when she agrees to assist in the invasion, only to betray Adora and sabotage the mission.

The Horde succeeds in stealing the Moonstone and brings it back to the main base, but retreat immediately afterwards due to being overwhelmed by Bright Moon’s improved defences. Stealing the Moonstone does lead to the Whispering Woods withering, but Bright Moon has a sudden tech boost that helps to protect them despite this.

Weird

Anyways

Glimmer gets more powerful, and more headstrong. Bo is very concerned by this development but is supportive of his friend.

Adora tries to get Shadow Weaver’s help in understanding the Moonstone and why Glimmer is connected to it despite not being a Princess. She tries to convince Hordac not to obliterate Shadow Weaver even though she’s dangerous to the Horde and its cause. Shadow Weaver manipulates Adora into helping her escape, but brings Adora with her to Bright Moon. She tries to convince Adora to switch sides with her and maintain balance in the world. Adora refuses to listen as they are both held prisoner.

Adora learns that Entrapta betrayed the Horde, that Glimmer was a clone of both Hordac and Bright Moon’s former Queen, that Adora herself is from another planet, and that Hordac is trying to bring an alien invasion to the planet. She also sees that Catra is happier in Bright Moon. Adora gets overwhelmed, has a breakdown, then manages to escape Bright Moon and return to the Horde despite Catra trying to stop her.

Glimmer manages to convince her father not to eliminate Adora.

Instead, however, Glimmer, Bo, and Adora get sent on a mission to the Crimson Waste because Bo thinks there are materials there that can help him upgrade their tech.

Now I’m not entirely sure how the Crimson Waste goes. Adora survives in cannon because of extremely specific circumstances and she isn’t as cut throat as Catra. Since this is a Swap AU, I could make it that Huntara used to be part of the Princess Alliance but left it when Queen Angelica and King Micah were captured. So she can still help Adora and the group survive due to wanting to gain the Horde’s trust so she can find out what happened to the King and Queen she’s loyal to. Adora is still naive and very gay for Huntara so the manipulation’s not hard.

Speaking of manipulation, Double Trouble is basically the same in this AU. At least in how they’re introduced. They approach Adora similarly to how they approached Catra, though they don’t get along with her nearly as well during their time working together.

Catra finds Adora after taking over the Crimson Waste and turning them against the Horde. She tries again to convince Adora to switch sides. Adora, at this point, is convinced that she’s making life worse for her friends, and that Catra and the Princess Alliance are better without her. She captures Catra and takes the Shera Sword from her because Hordac needs it for the portal. She thinks that if she earns Hordac’s forgiveness then she can fix all her mistakes.

Things get crazy after that.

Glimmer finds out at some point that her Mother is on Beast Island and wants to go there so she can find her. Adora knocks her out to stop her from going somewhere so dangerous.

Bow doesn’t think the portal will work and wants to warn Hordac. Adora doesn’t want Hordac to hurt Bow so she knocks him out too.

Catra and the other Princesses infiltrate the Horde base with Shadow Weaver’s help. They don’t have Glimmer’s teleportation magic but I feel like Castapella and Shadow Weaver’s magic would be strong enough to make a teleportation ritual. Then Scorpia and the Garnet can help boost Shadow Weaver’s powers.

Shadow Weaver lectures Adora for her idiocy after Huntara grabs Glimmer and takes her to Beast Island. Adora breaks down and forces Hordac to activate the portal.

I think the painful part of this AU for me is that it doesn’t work on Entrapta’s end if Hordac still cares about her so there’s no: Where’s Entrapta? I need her!

I love Entrapdac with a burning passion

Entrapta’s my favourite character honestly

But I think I can have Double Trouble play some sort of role instead. I dunno.

But yeah anywho, perfect reality happens. I’ll have to chew on what everyone’s perfect reality would be in this AU.

I might have to rewatch Shera because I forget what happens after the portal stuff is dealt with.

I think it’s basically Adora trying to convince Hordac not to execute her for Glimmer’s disappearance

Adora is breaking down mentally.

Hordac is breaking down physically.

The only reason Adora isn’t executed for Glimmer’s disappearance is because Hordac thinks she was captured in the invasion and Adora convinces him that he needs her in order to get Glimmer back.

Meanwhile Bow is like: Bullshit I’m out

Bow switches sides to the Princess Alliance and helps them get to Beast Island to save Glimmer. They get Queen Angelica and King Micah back in the process. Entrapta, who went with them, wants to stay on Beast Island. Bow apologizes to her for how they treated her in the Horde and tries to get her forgiveness. Catra bribes Entrapta with letting her drive the space ship.

Adora goes bat shit insane because all her friends left her. Even Kyle, Rogelio, and Laudie are like: Fuck this shit I’m out

She only has Double Trouble and they don’t even like her. They end up giving her false information and lure her into a trap for the Princesses.

At this point Adora goes into a fawn survival response. She apologizes to Catra for everything. Catra doesn’t forgive her, however, after all the hardship she’s caused. Bow and Glimmer avoid her, most of the Princess Alliance is hostile towards her. Scorpia and Sea Hawk are the first to give her the benefit of the doubt. Perfuma tries to be nice to her for Bow and Scorpia’s sake. Catra avoids her. Shadow Weaver attempts to console Adora in her own strange way. Shadow Weaver also becomes a close mentor to Glimmer. Entrapta quickly forgives Adora though and accepts her.

Adora becomes close to Angelica as the two of them help each other understand everything they didn’t know. They’re both people pleasing perfectionists and they become close because of it. Inadvertently, however, Glimmer hates Adora for having an easier time getting close to Angelica than Glimmer does.

Glimmer does get close with Micah though even though they aren’t biologically related in this AU. He quickly sees her as a daughter and Castapella reluctantly agrees to treat her as a niece. Castapella also isn’t happy about giving the throne back to Angelica but Shadow Weaver promise that they will take back Mystacor for her.

Catra refuses to talk to Adora and Adora goes insane from it. She tries to go back to the Horde with Glimmer and get the Moonstone back to Bright Moon to make it up to Catra but doesn’t realize that reconnecting Glimmer to the Moonstone while Catra is with Light Hope will result in the weapon activating.

Hordac catches Adora and Glimmer and tries to kill Adora. Glimmer saves Adora, but then Horde Prime finds them and brings them on his ship.

Catra is pissed off that Adora did something so stupid and now she has to go save her. She pretends it’s just her agreeing to go with Bow, Entrapta, and Angelica to save them.

So yeah intergalactic war stuff happens.

Adora just gives up when she’s brought in the Prime’s ship. She advocates for Glimmer’s survival, since Horde Prime wants to kill Glimmer for being an abomination, but not her own. She insists that she’s the abomination, not Glimmer, because of all the people she’s hurt. Glimmer feels sympathy for Adora, and advocates for both of them. She convinces Horde Prime that Etheria is a weapon, she’s part of it, and Adora knows how it works.

I’m thinking Adora is just shut down and disassociated the entire time on the Horde Ship and Glimmer is trying to keep her alive and get her responsive. She responds when Catra is brought up, and Horde Prime determines that he can use her as bait for Catra. Horde Prime sends a signal to Catra’s ship and tries to use Adora as a hostage, but Adora fights against him. She tells Catra not to come for her, that she isn’t worth it. Catra, however, doesn’t like being told what to do.

Anywho gay shit happens. Catra lectures Adora for being an idiot while Adora’s possessed and tries to break her out of it. When Adora falls, Catra jumps after her. Catra regains her Shera form saving Adora. When Adora wakes up, the two argue constantly because Adora thinks Catra should have left her behind.

Adora: You have no reason to forgive me. I know you all hate me.

Catra: I never hated you! I already forgave you! I hated seeing you get used! I hated Shadow Weaver and Hordac using you like a tool! I hated being away from you.

Adora: Then why avoid me? Why act like I’m dead to you?

Catra: Because it hurt! It hurt that you thought so lowly of me that you never bothered to listen when I finally started taking control of my life. When I became a better person, you became worse, and I hated myself for it.

Ha ha ha

These two both need therapy in every universe

I also want to give Adora and Catra more time together so they have more time to heal, grow, change. I want them to be friends and healthy before their gay love saves the universe.

Adora gets Swift Wind instead of the magic dog Catra gets. Not talking like Swift Wind but a horse with wings with magic powers.

I’ll talk about Catra’s wolf companion when I talk about Catra.

Adora’s people skills end up helping the rebellion a lot especially when they get to the surface and have to undo a lot of brain washing.

Catra crushes hard when Adora stands up to Shadow Weaver’s attempt to trick Catra into sacrificing herself

Catra gets pissed off when Adora tries to sacrifice herself in Catra’s place (as if that could even work). Adora reminds Catra that she promised they’d always stay together, and she already broke that promise when Catra left the horde. Wherever Catra goes, Adora will, even if it kills her.

I wouldn’t want the story to turn into Adora living for Catra, since Catra kind of ends up back in Adora’s shadow in cannon. So I’d probably give Adora her own ark around this part of the story where she leaves the camp to do something to help the Rebellion. Maybe she’ll be investigating something to do with Shera or with the fact she was an alien before and find out that she was originally supposed to be given the sword, but Light Hope chose Catra feeling that Catra would be more capable than Adora. Then they both get to be Shera (maybe I’d give Adora a new Shera design and hers can be called Aura or something like that.)

But yeah I’d want to have them be friends longer too and develop their individual issues separately before they get together in the end. Also longer time actually exploring their feelings for each other. I’ll probably make Horde Prime a bit less powerful but have him slowly get more powerful as time goes on so that the story isn’t so urgent to get through quickly.

At the end scene both Catra and Adora are trying to destroy the weapon together. When they start to falter they help each other stay up. Just as they think they’ve failed, they’ll confess their love for each other, then proceed to have the gay kiss that saves the Universe.

So yeah, that’s Lawful Evil turned Lawful Neutral turned Lawful Good Adora. I still have to rewatch the show and plan everything out properly, but I’m excited to see where this goes.

Glimmer will be next!

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

I hate the argument of that if they suffer either due their trauma or they got beat up then they’re redeemable and that they deserve forgiveness and they already have enough consequences. Okay… it doesn’t mean they’re worth of it, it just means they either karma or have a terrible life. Sure, I can feel sympathy but I need them to show if they actually learn their lesson and that if they hurt someone, that person isn’t obligated to forgive them at all especially if they also got trauma from them as well. Just because, a villain suffer doesn’t mean they deserve forgiveness or redemption, they get it if they actually work on fixing and making up their mistakes and they not get forgiveness from that person, it the person’s choice to accept that apology and if they don’t, that’s justified and okay. We need to learn this while making sympathetic villains. This why I hate catra and Felix (who is from miraculous by the way).

i so agree. and also the fact that writers put these characters through EVEN MORE trauma, and say that it’s a consequence of their actions, when it’s clearly not. like catra getting chipped or marcy being possessed by the core. this wouldn’t work in real life at all. imagine an abuser or a bully gets hit by a truck and has to spend months recovering. obviously they’re gonna be in a lot of pain and experience a lot of trauma, but do you think they’ll connect it with their own actions? fat chance.

we’ve already seen in catra’s case that she victimizes herself in every single situation, what makes people think that she’ll suddenly feel bad for everything she did after getting tortured by horde prime? as a matter of fact, she doesn’t! she doesn’t even think about the fact that she put adora through a very similar situation in white out.

in the end, catra has even more trauma because of being chipped and everyone around her has to walk on eggshells because of that.

[catras-breakup-song]

Soo hope your not bothered by this ask, if you are you can ignore it

Your take on catra "sexually harassing" adora in the dance between them scene by the antis?

Also your take on the antis saying catra used hurtful mind control on adora (in episode: white out) just like prime's own mind control abilities?

hang on for a bit while i process...

WHAT IN THE WORLD ???

i can at least understand the controversial argument that catra was abusive because... well, she was. she perpetuated the cycle (that only goes up to S2 but it gets the point across). as adora said, she hurt a lot of people before becoming a better person and improving her relationships.

but i cannot for the life of myself fucking get behind sexual assault accusations... are they serious?! that just comes across as lesbophobia at such a point. the only moment i can assume they're talking about is this one:

and that is adora's leg placement, her own doing. adora's body was supported from falling flat on the floor not because she lifted her leg up, but because catra's arms were held around her back. literally just search up on google "prom dip pose" and under the images section you'll find the partner kicking their leg up like that. alternatively, if adora hadn't done that and simply leaned back without lifting anything, the posture still would've been the same.

not to mention, adora later does practically the same thing anyway:

i hate how people pretend like there wasn't mutual desire between catradora as if their impulsive fights and angry tussles weren't homoerotic as hell, and not just on catra's end being the one to initiate them. the audience is hooked on the coding within their subtext for a damn good reason. for the record, someone wrote a super long essay about how their sexual desire for each other was written, including this exact scene from princess prom.

EDIT: this post is perfect specifically for adora’s role in their song-and-dance there!

as for the other part about the first ones' tech virus, i covered it briefly on another blog after an anti commented on my post, which i'd rather not link so i'll paraphrase and add on:

it's strange that this moment was focused on specifically when it was so brief and didn't seem to affect adora herself (seeing as the second the sword was detached from her hand she detransitioned) aside from passing out for a little while but otherwise being totally fine, let alone in the long run. even then though, i genuinely wonder if it was more from the freezing cold considering she didn't bring any winter wear due to planning on staying as she-ra the entire time, or even exhaustion from chasing after targets ─ then again though, i wouldn't be surprised if it was just the corruption since catra didn't have any trouble recovering from being half-erased and splitting reality apart herself. i would imagine regardless, she-ra is much more immune to physical weaknesses & obstacles, compared to the wielder. the point is, either way, it clearly wasn't traumatizing the way prime's chip was shown to affect catra even many episodes after STC. for example, she continued to rub the back of her neck in "an ill wind", which was five episodes after.

the disk, however, never needed to be brought up again, but if it had been, it'd be unfair to say long-lasting consequences were entirely to blame on catra when the exact same thing had happened in dryll where she hadn't been present. the only real difference was that catra, knowing what could happen (not would obviously, as she hadn't planned to be put in the spotlight like that), fully intended to destroy she-ra unless she could weaponize it (but notably not adora in her default state), which i can't defend her for. it was a malicious choice, but it's reasonable to say it wasn't out-of-order while they were active enemies. at least she ended up realizing she was paying the price by being nearly killed, as she had been so used to adora going easy on her before the events of the portal-opening took place.

[aprillikesthings]

LAST EPISODE

s5 ep13 heart pt 2

LET'S GOOOOOOO

it's 1:21pm and I have laundry to do AND Easter Vigil service starts at 8pm, can I get this all watched before 7pm?

Or am I gonna sit there in church vibrating in place for two hours knowing I have three minutes left on the episode or some bullshit lol

(That's longer than usual, yes. Easter Vigil is actually one of my fave services of the year--we start outside lighting candles (the ones inside have been out since Thursday night, even the one we otherwise never put out), then walk into the dark church, then sorta speedrun bits of the old testament (with a hymn after every reading) and then we decide OKAY IT'S EASTER NOW :D and turn on the lights and make a lot of noise and sing a few more hymns--we don't sing or say alleluia during Lent so all the hymns have that in it. There's often MASSIVE amounts of church incense, too. Anyway by the end it's a bit of a party. Apparently some churches have an actual party after the service.)(side note if you're new-ish to these posts that I'm Episcopalian, like, the priests at my church are a gay man and a woman, we're cool people mostly I promise)

See this is why these posts take forever. Why do I keep infodumping shit. This is what it's like to watch things with me in person, though.

If I get through this episode before Easter Vigil my reward is gonna be coming home and taking an edible and rewatching the last two episodes without screenshots so I can just cry over them.

oKAY

eh? that's new. like putting that on screen like that in dead silence. No intro sequence.

oh right Adora is injured. :( And it's some kind of magical monster thing that did it--a security thing put into the Crystal Castle by the First Ones

when she touches her wound the Failsafe glows, and it's making static-y noises and looking glitchy, that can't be good

the nasty tentacle monster thing is still there buT SO IS CATRA YAYYYY she shatters at least one of its eyeballs? I think?

my brain: this is like Caitlyn helping Vi after she got stabbed by Sevika, the wound is even in the same place :D me: wrong person has the red jacket on also Catra isn't going to buy some illegal potion thing to dose Adora with

(you should watch Arcane)

DOES SHE EVER SAY IT LIKE THAT BEFORE THIS?? oh god she sounds so breathless and relieved

Adora: "You can't be here! It's too dangerous"

And she stands up and starts to fall over and fucking Shadow Weaver helps her stand up, uGH

LOOK AT MY BB KICKING ASS

oh god so Shadow Weaver basically drags off Adora, Catra's like "I'll catch up, okay?" and Adora's like "no no Catraaaaa" her voice is cracking and everything, she doesn't want to do this without her and also worries about Catra and that tentacle monster thing

I'm not gonna screenshot it but poor Glimmer is fighting her dad, who is still chipped and Evil.

Bow is fighting Scorpia, also chipped and Evil. Oh hey Melog shows up and makes Bow invisible.

Micah is MEAN when chipped. He calls Glimmer a failure.

Glimmer: "My mother raised me to be brave. My friends taught me to be kind. And I'm stubborn. I get that from you. I will never stop fighting! And I won't lose another parent! I love you, dad."

She blasts him with enough magic that he collapses.

Bow, invisible, types away on Entrapta's computer she set up in the Horde thing, but when he gets it to start to do its thing he gets excited and says "I've got it!!" and Scorpia hears it and blasts him and is standing over him about to get him.

Bow: "Prime may have made you do a lot of things, but he can't turn you into something you're not. So, right now, all I need you to do is trust me."

Her eyes get normal for a second and she yells, and Bow slams a button on Entrapta's computer. There's a bright light.

Where Sea Hawk is holding Mermista, her chip goes dead and falls off. We get a lovely montage of other characters from all over Etheria, like Huntara and the folks at Elberon, who'd been chipped having their eyes go back to normal!

Scorpia: "oh my gosh I am so sorry!!"

yeah she's definitely back to normal lol

up on Horde Prime's ship:

lol

"My device worked! I knew it would!"

Bow: "Hey, everyone. I'm Bow."

(lol there's so much story in just this frame alone)

But yeah they show people from all over Etheria stopping to watch him speak, including his dads.

"Right now, we're the only thing standing in the way of him controlling it forever. You might be feeling hopeless. You might be thinking "We don't stand a chance." And maybe we don't. Prime's too strong. His army is too powerful. But that's not gonna stop us. We need to show Prime we're not afraid of him, because we have each other. And we have love. We can't give up. And if we go down, we go down together. We need you. All of you."

"It's time to fight. For She-Ra, for our homes, for each other!"

Broadcast over, back to Horde Prime. "Put an end to this mockery."

Catra injures the tentacle monster thing, but now that green is spreading into the room, and as Catra runs down the hall towards the Heart, she stops as Horde Prime shows up in hologram form

"I had such high hopes for you." like what, dude. keeping her around and chipped like a fucking puppet as an example? eugh. (something something about how her speeches to Adora while chipped were an obvious reference to people proselytizing high-control faiths)

the moment of distraction is enough for the tentacle monster to grab one of Catra's legs and she screams in pain D:

also there's still a bunch of earthquakes happening as these two limp towards the Heart

Poor Adora is just weakly going "No...no...wait" Shadow Weaver: "Don't lose your focus. We're so close."

What's this WE shit.

But also damn one thing Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime (and Light Hope!) have in common is they both believe love and affection and "attachments" are weaknesses. Shadow Weaver just cannot seem to get it through her head that Adora's love for Catra (and vice versa) is helpful here. Not a detriment. Love isn't a distraction!!! It gives us a stable ground of security and safety from which to do hard things!!

Meanwhile poor Angella told Adora "take care of each other."

This is pulsating, and so is the Failsafe on Adora's chest

OH NO oh god Okay being near that much hardcore magic is making Shadow Weaver powerful--her hair does the floaty thing for the first time since, what, s2? And she starts reaching for it, but THEN--

Adora yells Catra's name and starts walking back towards her, and Shadow Weaver's hair falls down again and she says the most weirdly desperate-sounding "Adora, wait!"

Prime's hologram is still torturing Catra along with the actual tentacle monster

(someone has drawn rule 34 of that thing but I'm not looking for it. I am content to know it exists.)

AND THEN THE MONSTER GETS BLASTED BY SHADOW WEAVER AHAHA NICE

about time she was useful amiright

okay so is this Shadow Weaver actually realizing she's been wrong about The Power of Love, or is this just her begrudgingly accepting that these two are Sold as A Set, Do Not Separate, and unless Catra's there Adora won't be able to use the Failsafe because she'll be looking for Catra the whole time???

Like is this an emotional epiphany or just pragmatism?

oh god so she magically shoves Catra away (towards Adora), but Catra runs back to Shadow Weaver

And y'all I know I talked about this a LOT way back in earlier seasons but I cannot tell you how accurate this keeps being in regards to dealing with an abusive parent. Like if you'd asked me, even after I cut off contact, if I wanted my dad to die, I would've said No! Of course not! At that point I didn't know whether the no-contact thing was temporary or not. I just knew I needed time and space to not be constantly stressed and anxious, for a notification on my phone to not immediately fill me with so much adrenaline my hands shook.

Anyway Shadow Weaver puts up a magical shield to keep Catra back

Shadow Weaver's response is amazingly calm and quiet. "Please, Catra. You need to make sure Adora reaches the Heart. The magic must be set free."

Her fight with Tentacle Monster isn't going well.

Catra's voice is heartbreaking here. "Stop it! It's going to kill you!"

"But you, this is only the beginning for you."

;_;

STICK THAT KNIFE IN AND TWIST IT! YEAH!

Catra's crying "no...no..." and a hand reaches out and grabs hers

LOL FINALLY HIT THE IMAGE LIMIT okay going to reblog

what a moment for it pfft

[baggebythesea]

I love this analysis.

Just to zoom in on Glimmer's subplot, the fact that her "power of love" moment was beating the shit out of her posessed father, apart from what op already mentioned with her showing love by destroying Prime's ability to use him (and trusting his ability to be able to take a beating like that), her means of doing so also came from a culmination of her character arc.

One big theme for Glimmer throughout the series, and especially in s4, was the conflict between the expectations on her and her need to be herself. In s4 she got all the powers she had envied Angella for - magic and political - but itched to do things her own way. To get her hands dirty. To do the work herself. Shadow Weaver and - more roundabout through parallelism - Catra offered her ways to do that, and in the end it was to no small part the powers, tactics and self confidence Glimmer had learnt from the two of them that allowed her to take down Micah.

That's why Micha's Prime induced 'reason you suck' speech fell completely flat.

"The weakling. The failure." By that point in the show Glimmer knew she was neither of those things. Weakling? She had held the power of the Heart of Etheria in her hand. She had seen firsthand the damage she had brought with that power. Failure? She had seen her own worst sides mirrored in Catra. She had talked Catra into doing "one good thing. She had begged for, and received the forgivness of Adora and Bow. She knew that there was a way back from even the worst of failures, and - as always - Glimmer was no quitter. She was going to keep trying, no matter what.

Pathetic? Alone? Weak? Glimmer knew she was neither of those things. Prime had tried to reduce her to a trinket in his museum before, and she smashed his fucking orb, turned his key Etherian assest against him and returned with the fucking legendary hero She-Ra to smash his shit, beat up his clones, destroy his mainframe and steal his fucking cat. Alone? Even locked up in a cell in space she was not alone, not with Catra there for her, not with Bow and Adora and Entrapta rushing to save her. Even when Prime did his best to turn the people of Etheria against the princesses, it took one fight and one speech for the princess alliance to be back in business. Weak?

Queen Fucking Glimmer of Fucking Brightmoon is many things, but 'outgunned' is not one of them.

Glimmer KNOWS she is not weak. Not a failure. Not pathetic and most ephatically not alone. She is brave. She is kind. She is stubborn.

And she won't lose another parent = she won't allow Prime to use Micah as leverage against her. He tried it in space. He tried it again in the final fight. Both times it ended with Glimmer smashing his shit, stealing his puppets and utterly owning him.

And she could do that BECAUSE of her turns and misturns during the show. BECAUSE she had allowed Shadow Weaver to tutor her. BECAUSE her choices had stranded her in space together with her worst enemy. She was GLIMMER - the person who had done those bad things AND good things that had led her to the moment where she was now, and that person could totally kick Micah's ass.

Failure? Pathetic? Weak? Alone? There were times during the show Glimmer would call herself all those things. The weak princess. The bad friend. The unworthy queen. The pathetic excuse for a hero. Overwhelming hubris and crippling self doubt. But by the time she faced her chipped father, all that was behind her.

By the end of the show, Glimmer had truly grown into her crown and her throne and her powers. She owned her mistakes. She owned her insecurities. She also owned her good sides. Her strength. Her bravery. Her stubborness. Her never ending urge to do what was right. Her friends and her hard work to mend bridges with them.

She listened to the bullshit Prime had her father say and saw right through it. Rightly realised how pathetic his taunts of her was.

Overwhelming hubris? She owned her strength as well as her weakness.

Crippling self doubt? She owned her confidence as well as her insecurities

Allow Prime to use her father as a puppet?

On her watch?

Absolutely-fucking-not

Glimmer's 'power of love' movement was the power of self-love. Of reconciling her different sides. Of winning her conflict with herself. Of not allowing her doubts and insecurities stop her from fighting the good fight.

She even got to see her mother cheer her on, which was nice.

she ra confuses me, like in some parts of it, it subverts tropes like destiny, mentors, redemption arcs, but in the big finale it's the biggest 'the good guys defeat the bad guys with the power of love' cliche

I disagree. There are some elements of this, but the meat of the finale is not about the power of love - rather, it is about identity and self-actualization. And the places where love interact, sometimes it is in more interesting ways. Such as.... where this love comes from, and where it is accepted.

Let me go through the key beats of the finale:

1. Would you say Shadow Weaver saved Catra and Adora with the "power of love"? Is that her "love" for them? If so, then that's really interesting - a darker interpretation of love, which they also have for her, in a way. That is no happy go lucky love cliche. The scene with them crying over her, it's powerful and painful and very provocative, IMO the strongest part of the finale. What do you do when you feel love for your abusive parental figure, and then just when you're getting over the fact they never cared about you, they show love back in an act of self-destruction? What closure do you get?

2. Love in the context of Entrapta and Hordak, is hard earned, because these characters spend so much of the show thinking that they were innately unlovable, and because Hordak had spent the whole season being guided back to his own identity with the "LUVD" crystal, and even then, it still wasn't enough - after Hordak had finally won the battle to be true to himself, to show and accept love, he had this pried out of hands immediately by Horde Prime. In the original animatic, Hordak panicked that he killed his brother (who in part he does still love), and Entrapta calmed him down... then Prime yelled at them, in Hordak's body, that they were unworthy and unloved and would die with no comfort. It was chilling. The final scene was cut short but I'm glad the original was shared.

These two have a bit in common with Adora and Catra - Entrapta works her ass off this season to protect the people she cares about with her tech skills, and is scared of failing them or being rejected, while Hordak doesn't think he is worthy of love because of the monstrous abomination that he is. In this scene, rather than shooting Entrapta, failing her again, and discarding his identity, Hordak shows her that he recieved her message of caring about him, reciprocates, and has her back. And in doing so, accepts he's worth something.

3. Catra and Adora's story of love isn't about the fact that they were going to get into a romance, it is about how Adora has spent the entire show giving OTHER PEOPLE her love, INCLUDING Catra, and how she has always refused to accept reciprocation. She has gotten herself into the mindset that it's her responsibility to care for and protect everyone else, and that to accept help, or to let other people do the job, would mean that she is too weak to be counted on, that she is unworthy of the power of She-Ra, or of the love her friends have for her. Adora's too strong for her own good and thinks that because she has a very slim possibility of surviving a suicide mission, that she should do it, rather than someone who has zero chance. But like how Angella didn't think Adora should seal the portal, Catra doesn't think Adora should use the Failsafe by herself, and decides that they will face their fate together.

In accepting Catra's love, Adora accepts she is worthy of love, that she is worthy of happiness, and this basically heals a rift in her being which allows her to focus on BECOMING She-Ra and actually save the world.

4. While I'm not exactly fond of Mermista and Sea Hawk's scene (IMO its inclusion was fun but made the finale seem too much like "power of love woohoo"), Glimmer and Bow had some interesting demonstrations of love.

Glimmer doesn't break Micah's control with kind words of friendship like everyone else does - she shows her love by MELTING HIS DAMN FACE OFF, knocking him out of the fight and stopping him from further damaging his own body.

Bow's big love moment isn't for himself or even someone he's particularly close with - it's for SCORPIA. Bow appeals to Scorpia's inner good nature, to get her to pause for ONE SECOND, so that he can execute Entrapta's nicely-prepared programme and actually free all the chipped people, because no amount of love will spare them from Prime's hivemind. It's a big moment for Scorpia, who has spent the whole show being the villain who always had so much care for others, but never recieved much back. Bow may not be close to her, but he understands what it is to be that friend, and is able to connect to her and believe in her without having much of a rapport.

5. Prime's actual death is straight up She-Ra murder, which is pretty cool. Bear in mind, this isn't She-Ra's power being boosted by love so much as it is the Heart of Etheria that the First Ones collected... but Adora, now at peace, is able to enjoy a moment of empathy for Hordak, a character who has a lot more in common with her than she would have ever believed.

Two soldiers born and bred to be used as weapons of war, finally meeting again at the end of their journeys.

Anyway, like I said, there are SHADES of "power of love", and that comes through when the characters "break out" of their chip control, but complete pandering to this is subverted by how the chips actually had to be 1. broken to prevent complete control of the characters and 2. removed by Entrapta and Bow's server hack, which is absolutely NOT "power of love", we spent the whole past season watching them prepare for that task, learning about Prime's computers and dismantling the chips.

The places that it appears most, as listed above, are hard earned, and more about the power of self respect than about loving someone else. Because the characters have all been capable of loving others the whole time, but the hard part is accepting they are worth being loved back, and that's what the finale is about!

[catrasredemption-moved]

Taking Control Rewatch/Analysis

After a lot of discussion, I've decided it's time to rewatch Taking Control, because it really does highlight Adora's and Catra's separate issues with each other, and shows that Adora, frankly, has very shitty habits when it comes to dealing with Catra.

NOTE: I am not, at any point, saying that Adora is abusive. She's not, but her approach to Catra in this episode just sort of sucks for a good amount of time, and it's all a result of how they were raised.

Let's just jump right in - Catra is clearly traumatized. We come off the theme song right into her having a nightmare:

And not just any nightmare - she's dreaming about Prime, and everything that happened.

So... off to a good start for her.

And then Adora comes in, and god help her she just wants to do whatever she can for Catra, but at that moment, even Catra doesn't know what she needs, and she's spent years dealing with Adora's "we can fix it" savior complex, so of course she does the one thing she knows how to do - gets angry and lashes out.

(It's also really important to remember that Catra specifically told Adora not to go to Prime's ship. "Don't come here, no matter what." She was ready to die on that ship, ready to die for the only thing that still mattered to her - Adora.)

Then, just like Catra, Adora falls back on old, Horde-learned habits - she gets angry.

An Not at a great move considering everything Catra just went through, and blatantly ignoring Catra's admittedly ridiculous request to just be dropped off on some planet. ("I said I'm going to take you home and that's exactly what I'm going to do.") Is it something Adora should indulge? No, of course not. Is the correct response flipping the mattress and throwing Catra on the floor? No.

And then...

"Why are you acting like this? We saved your life!"

Catra told Adora not to come back. She sent Glimmer away specifically to keep Adora from going to Prime's ship. She had already accepted her fate and planned to die or spend the rest of her life as Prime's mini-me, and she was at peace with it. The implied "we saved you, you should be grateful", is very Shadow Weaver-esque, while also saying Catra should be grateful for something she did not want.

Again, is Catra being reasonable? Of course not. She should've known Adora would come back for her, whether it was to save her friend or to be a hero. So of course she gets mad and yells back because she never asked to be saved, or given another chance at a life she didn't want.

"I thought things could be different this time but clearly nothing has changed."

And Adora is very, very wrong. A lot has changed. Catra has changed. But Adora's way of arguing with her hasn't adapted to catch up with all that yet.

And the kitchen scene. Oh the kitchen scene.

"I thought we actually stood a chance at fixing things this time, but after everything we've been through, she's still a stubborn brat!"

Well, Adora... you haven't actually tried to fix anything. You went in, tried to force her to talk when she clearly didn't want to, then yelled at her and walked out. You want her to be grateful that you saved her even though she had absolutely zero desire to live, and you kind of threw her out of bed.

"We all risked our lives to save her, and she can't even say thank you?"

How long has it actually been since they got away from Prime? I can't imagine more than twelve hours, since Darla is still in pretty rough shape and Entrapta is running around like crazy to fix things. That's less than a day to recover from being chipped, dying, being brought back to life, and adjusting to now having to live a life you'd given up. Catra's still trying to catch up with everything, and Adora is already harping on her about changing and being grateful.

And again, let me be clear - I do not think Adora is abusive or malicious. Frustrated, yes, because Catra is being stubborn, but not for the reasons Adora thinks. She's used to Catra acting this way, but the feelings are coming from a completely different place, something Adora hasn't taken time yet to understand. She's not just being stubborn, she's scared.

We also get Glimmer being the voice of reason in this scene, and that's so important:

"This is Catra we're talking about. Did you think she was instantly going to become a totally different person?"

Two things to note here: Glimmer, by this point, has spent a lot of time with Catra. Catra, who kept coming back to her cell to taunt her, but also stayed when Glimmer asked. Catra, who laughed when they talked about Adora and told her about being cadets in the Horde. Catra who saved her life. Glimmer knows Catra hides behind a hard exterior, and from the way Adora's acting, she can probably guess that she sent Catra right back into that after some very painful vulnerability.

Second thing - Glimmer says different person. Not better, not good, different. Catra's already proven she can be good, and Glimmer knows that'll come out when Catra is ready. But Catra's processing method doesn't run on Adora's schedule.

"I thought she'd at least try."

Again, Adora, you haven't given her a chance. Old coping mechanisms just aren't going to work here, no matter how hard Adora tries.

She also just really unintentionally has the worst timing.

This is the second time she's walked in right on the heels of a flash, and it's obviously not her fault, she doesn't know. It just terrible, terrible timing.

And this is where we get into some really dicey territory.

Catra had complete control of her body just ripped away from her. She's been violated in one of the worst possible ways. She's had almost no time to recover mentally. And now here Adora is, with someone Catra does not want to see, ordering Catra around and making demands.

Again, Adora isn't wrong per se. The chip needs to go. But Catra is in full defense mode, and Adora isn't helping. She's making it worse. She literally backs Catra into a corner and yells at her. It's really not a good look.

She's scared. Scared of the situation, of the fact that she has to face Entrapta, of the idea of living a life she had no intention of continuing. And she's scared of Adora. Because Adora is still acting the way she would have before Horde Prime, but Catra's not the same person anymore, and Adora hasn't seen that yet. She doesn't see it until Catra finally takes the hardest step and reaches out to her.

"Stay."

And finally, finally Adora sees. She sees Catra being vulnerable, asking for her. She realizes that maybe she's been doing this wrong. Maybe her old approach isn't right. Maybe Catra doesn't need the old Adora and her way of dealing with things. She needs comfort. She needs to know she's not making a mistake by letting Adora see her weakness.

Catra, meanwhile, has at least started to come to terms with things. She has this life, even if she didn't want it, and she's so tired of self-sabotaging. And when faced with the possibility of never seeing Adora again... she realizes she doesn't want it. She doesn't want to be alone anymore.

And they proceed with this new, tentative, weird dynamic. Catra forces herself to face the flashes the chip's been causing and use them for something good, and Adora supports her through it instead of arguing. It's new, and it's strange, but it works.

Rounding out to the end of the episode, it's really significant that Adora goes to Bow and Entrapta after the fight rather than back to Catra. She's finally recognizing that she needs to give Catra space, and that if Catra wants her, she'll come to her. It's a gamble that pays off.

The Point:

There's a lot going around about how Catra is abusive and cruel to Adora, but not a lot about how it goes both ways. Adora is the hero, she's supposed to be perfect, but she's not, and we see that as early as the first episode when she all but blames Catra for the way Shadow Weaver treats her. ("You are kinda disrespectful.")

It's a terrible consequence of the way they were raised, and it's really showcased in Taking Control, where Adora immediately reverts back to old habits and ways of dealing with Catra that don't fit anymore. It's only when she learns how much things have changed - when she truly sees how vulnerable Catra is - that she tries to adjust her own behavior accordingly.

Catra, in much the same way, learns that she can't just slip back into her old skin - her old habits, her old way of acting. It's not who she is anymore. So she takes a chance. She lets herself be vulnerable. And Adora responds positively. It's a huge step for both of them, and a turning point in their relationship. Now they really do have a chance to fix things, because they're finally on the same page.

[incorrect-quotes-from-she-ra]

glitradora fic, anything really would be nice <3

hey anon! thanks for the request, this was really fun to write :)

---

"We're out of cereal," Catra grumbles out. It's midnight, she's sleep-deprived and exhausted, and she wants. Her fucking. Cereal.

"I think I might have finished it," Adora blurts out. She's sitting at the couch, where the three of them had crashed right after making it home from work. Glimmer is still half asleep.

"Adora," Catra groans. "My cereal."

"Sorry! It just tastes really good and you get the ones with the little white chocolate triangles in them and they're such a lovely surprise! You can never get used to it!"

"We can just go to the nearest," Glimmer yawns, "24/7 and buy more."

Catra considers that idea. "Okay," she decides, and snatches up her coat. She's striding to the door, stuffing her wallet in her pocket before Glimmer interrupts her.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"The store?"

"Not without us," Glimmer says, heaving herself out of the couch. "I can't believe you're making me do this, Catra."

"I'm not making you do anything," Catra points out, but Adora's already twisted up with trying to get her hands through her jock jacket and Glimmer is digging through the pile of stuff at the coffee table for the apartment keys. Catra heaves a sigh.

---

Catra has to fight, fight, her smile as she watches her girlfriends in the grocery store. She can't help it, okay? They're adorable.

"Catra," Adora asks, with literal puppy eyes. She's holding up the chocolatey cereal Catra hates with her whole heart. "Please? I know you hate it but I love it and so does Glimmer and we'll finish it really fast this time-"

Catra rolls her eyes. Glimmer pushes up next to Adora, slinging a casual arm around her waist and adding her puppy eyes to the mix.

Catra breaks. "Fine," she grumbles. "But only one packet!"

Adora grins sloppily, and presses a quick kiss to Catra's lips before running off down the aisle. Glimmer hesitates, pecking Catra shyly and running after Adora, leaving Catra to smile fondly and shake her head.

They move down the shelves of cereal to the snack aisle, and Glimmer already has a towering pile of junk food in her arms. Adora is snatching candy off their hangers. Glimmer dumps the entire pile of chips, chocolate, soda and god knows what else into the cart, and grins at Catra. Catra bites the inside of her cheek.

"Not a chance," she says, and starts putting the food back on the shelf. "Glimmer, why do we need barbeque chips?? No one likes barbeque chips!!"

"Bow does," Glimmer says immediately. "And he's visiting on the weekend."

"Bow won't eat a familysized pack of chips, Sparkles. No," Catra adds, as Glimmer's hand reaches out to another packet of the sweet and salted chips she loves so much. "I have already counted three of those packets- Adora!"

Adora grins sheepishly from behind the cart, into which she'd just dumped a handful of chocolates of all sort.

"Guys," Catra moans, running a hand down her face. "I'm not getting us all this shit only to have you sick in bed complaining about a bad stomach two weeks later."

"We won't," Glimmer swears.

Catra raises an eyebrow. "Really?" she asks.

"Glimmer, come on, we have to check out the paste aisle," Adora interrupts, her eyes glinting. "Catra, you can sort through the stuff, keep all the chocolates and the chips. Get some more soda. Bye! Love you!"

"That's not sorting out!" Catra yells after them, but they're long gone. She stifles another smile and continues on.

---

Catra catches Glimmer and Adora making out against a row of pasta sauces, and she leans one shoulder against the shelf, and smirks, waiting for her girlfriends to notice her. When they do, Glimmer shoots her a look that makes Catra want to taste Adora on her lips, and Adora looks embarrassed at being caught, running a hand through her messy hair.

"Hi," Catra says finally, moving down the aisle, pushing her cart in front of her. It's been emptied of all food except the cereals and a few packets of chips [Glimmer's favourites] and a few chocolates [Adora's favourites].

"Hey," Glimmer says, reaching out. Her hand fits around Catra's waist easy as anything, and Catra settles into the touch, smiles softly as Adora drops the ingredients required for Catra's favourite type of pasta into the cart.

When Catra doesn't move to take them out, and pushes the cart to the check-out counter, Adora gasps. "Oh, I see how it is! When it's your food you're okay with buying it but when it's ours..."

Catra snickers.

"Catra! I can't believe you'd do that to us!" Adora is pouting now, and Glimmer looks up at Catra with her eyes all widened and adorable and. Fuck.

"Do what?" Catra asks, laughing. They reach the counter and she starts to place their items up, exchanging a smile with the cashier.

"Gum," Glimmer jumps up, holding out a stick of bubble-gum pink gum. "And we'll forgive you."

"No."

"If you get us those perfume strips we'll forgive you," Adora offers.

"Nope." Catra grins at the cashier, who's hiding a laugh.

"Gum. Candy. Perfume. Lip balm. Chocolates. Soda."

"It's like you don't want us to forgive you, Catra."

"Come on, kitty!"

"Fuck off," Catra says, pulling out her card to pay for the groceries. "Excuse my language," she adds, addressing the cashier. "They bring out the worst in me. They're idiots, you see."

The cashier laughs. They hand the bag to Catra and take the card, scanning it. "You guys look happy, though. And y'all are cute, too."

Catra looks back at her girls, who are gaping at her in shock. Probably because she just called them idiots in front of the cashier. "Yeah. Thanks."

She gets her card back, and tips the cashier. "They're idiots," she says, finally, smiling softly at the cashier. "But, well," she looks at the way Adora is trying to keep the sliding doors open with Glimmer cheering her on- "they're my idiots. Have a good night."

---

requests are open!! feel free to send in some <33

[etheriadearie]

Read your big Entrapta post. It was very interesting, and over 6000 words long, LMAO. You should use plain text more though, the heavily reformatted bold/italicised/etc text made it difficult to read.

So, a few things:

1. I absolutely agree that the characters are continuing the historical trauma of the first ones. Entrapta is a truth seeker trying to get to the heart of the issue and basically discovers the Heart of Etheria with the minimal amount of investigation in season 1, with nobody else questioning what the First Ones did because it would mean they have to question their entire power structure.

2. However, Entrapta is still a villain that the Princesses need to stop. Especially as the Black Garnet Experiment was hurting so many people, and she didn't even know what sort of dangerous weapon was lurking under the surface yet! Unfortunately I think the lack of communication with her in s1 is attributed to time - she only got a single episode to deal with them and just when they were warming up to each other they were separated. I like to think if this separation never happened, the other characters would've started to understand Entrapta better and let her do her thing. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't have let her mess with a runestone. A full Rebellion! Entrapta would face prejudice against tampering with tech, as you said. Only the Horde would be willing to fully embrace it, which is why Bow's tech is nowhere close to Entrapta's - hell, people tease him for it rather than ask him about it!

(This presumably changes after s5 where suddenly tech is a vital part of society and Entrapta carried the Rebellion through the transition.)

3. I do think you're right when you say, all the other characters are caught up in their anger and hurt, but Entrapta lets it pass through, and she can see most clearly the value in other people, and treats them better than she gets treated. She does carry and push down some hurt especially around getting rejected so many times no matter how hard she tries, and sometimes she questions her own philosophies of "imperfections are beautiful" because how can she believe that when her own imperfections keep leading to her pushing people away? But she has a strong heart, and pushes through that doubt and becomes a powerful force for individuality across the show. She is unabashedly herself, and transfers that positive energy onto other characters when de-chipping them, breaking up tension for other characters on the space ship, and helping Hordak figure out who he is.

Hi! Sounds like we agree on a lot, let me see if I can respond to a few things...

Thanks! My Promise discussion is over 17,000 hah 💜😜💜✌️. And I think you're right about the text, thx for saying. I've been thinking about switching to all bold, an example of that here.

Okay to this, I think we need to deal with the outdated and blasé boring 80s villain concept..

::metadiscuss She-ra and ND Stevenson's take on villains 🦹‍♀️

To be clear, my writing is never done to condone anyone's actions. What's happening is that they're all bad (until s5). SPOP is a waking disaster for pretty much every character, good guys and bad, they are all being hurtful and those decisions are bouncing off each other in a disastrous chaotic echo chamber. And Entrapta’s story, while messy, shows the truest line of good intentions towards others and to finding the truth.

Which is why I think judging Entrapta (or Catra and Hordak) as 'villains who need to be stopped’ isn't what ND wants us to do.

Catra and Hordak are absolutely being total assholes, but, there's only a couple really evil people in SPOP, who cause so much hurt and destruction in the story, and to which we can trace back all the other characters' actions to. What makes Catra and Hordak different from these evil people is that they aren't sociopaths. For example, one such sociopath villain- Shadow Weaver- gets away with the most terrible bullshit for the longest time. She abused Catra and Adora from an early age- and Adora and Catra only manage to stop her at the very end. This is a much more realistic storyline, as irl abusers fly under the radar, some never even face consequences for their actions.

But, this complexity is how ND Stevenson set out to give us a better story than the old 80s boring blasé “villains are evil and only exist to be stopped by the heroes”. Those stories lack any creativity, making 1 dimensional badguys to be knocked over by the heroes shooting gallery style.

The biggest clue that SPOP rejects such a blasé villain take is the plot itself- do the Princesses EVER even really stop them? Anything they try to do backfires- they didn't stop the portal from opening, they never regained control of the Black Garnet- and yet did the Horde ever use it again?

They could have, right? So, the Princesses struggle to even do the most basic thing of stopping the Horde. Stopping the villains isn't something we see them do until the end. The Princesses don't work together, before Adora showed up they all hid in their kingdoms and abandoned Etheria’s populace (and often their own people) to war. (see Bow’s dad George in s2ep7). But, by making unbalanced emotional decisions that are out of control they do make things worse for themselves, and for everyone on Etheria. This is because while the Horde is wrong, their own decisions add to the trauma of the other side, particularly Catra, perpetuating and increasing the violence.

For example, about one of the most villainous moments- Catra pulling the switch- we can see how Glimmer’s own actions of empowering Shadow Weaver in s3ep4 sends things out of control.

That's the moment Catra's actions are solidified, before then she's not angry enough to do what she does. And from then on Glimmer continues to give Shadow Weaver even more power in s4, she falls for her deceptions, which contributes to Glimmer’s mistake of linking Scorpia to the Heart, looking to win by any option. The world almost ends; it's chaos.

To elaborate about the portal incident: I say confidently that what we're suppose to understand within the plot that the portal wouldn't have happened without Glimmer bringing Shadow Weaver to the Fight Zone.

Entrapta actually had that under control, she had convinced Hordak to wait to try the portal, so they could perfect it (more really, for romance). And Adora did a good job warning Entrapta about the dangers, changing her mind. So, even though Catra wanted to do it, it wouldn't have happened. She wasn't the uncontrollably enraged person we see when she shocks Entrapta and then lies to Hordak.

That all comes down to Catra being brought within an inch of her life by her abuser yet again. Catra has been powerless to stop her abuser all of her life. Seeing the Princesses enable her abuser is a bridge too far. She has to win, even if there's a chance the world will end.

Imho what Catra did to Entrapta is what she hates herself for the most. It wasn't supposed to happen, we see that on her face afterwards. Catra is (predictably) driven by fear, that no matter what she does her abuser will be enabled by others.

Even at that point in the story, Adora is an enabler of their abuser in Catra's eyes. She's wrong, Adora has no control- and feels as unsafe as she does.

This is the kind of evidence that's there if you look for it, and Glimmer's decision to enable their abuser leaves both Adora and Catra unnerved and they begin to spiral during s4. What's also true is that Glimmer is partially responsible for her own pain in s4 and the loss of her mother. (I can talk in more detail about this cascade of events, lmk.)

In fact, Shadow Weaver switching sides is nothing- she's not trying to help the Princesses win, there's nothing left for her at the Horde and she uses it as a new opportunity to manipulate for power. In s4 she drives Glimmer towards releasing the power, for her own gain. It doesn't end like she intends when the Heart is set off instead.

But, as usual Shadow Weaver is getting away with it. She only faces consequences in s5 when Catra (‘a villain who needs to be stopped') helps Adora past all the manipulations with her love confession. Why is it Catra that has to bring the knowledge of love, why is she the wise one? It's literally the story of the series, her saving Adora with The Kiss.

So the story of the series isn't that Catra is a redeeming villain- it's why she has this special knowledge. Nor is Adora some miraculous hero- she can't be a real hero until she learns to accept that love.

So Catra can't really be called a villain, she does act the part but it's more complicated than that. Hordak isn't one either- he is a trauma machine, but he helps them win in the end, too. And Entrapta is one of the least villainous people in her intentions- lead than the Princesses who try to use a horrific super weapon to win (obvious similarities to choosing the nuclear option). Instead, we should focus on the real villains- sociopathic manipulators who like to hurt others- Shadow Weaver, Horde Prime, and somewhat Light Hope.

They lack the ability to feel love or empathy, they want to hurt others, like many of the worst abusers in our societies (looking at you, capitalism). That emotional difference is where the root of evil actually lies, because it lets them hurt people indefinitely. And just like Shadow Weaver, Horde Prime got away with it for the longest time, he hurt Hordak and murdered many innocent worlds before being stopped. And what did it take to stop him? An act of love. Gay love. 🏳️‍🌈 That's a pretty great rejection of the blasé troupes if you ask me.

So, I don't agree with the 80s villain view of Entrapta and most other characters. Is Scorpia a villain? How about Kyle, Rogelio, and Lonnie? They're treated as such. It's so much better that we're shown both sides, to understand how their choices are affected by the Princesses own actions. So that way we can think about why they make the decisions that they do. It's chaos until they all agree to stop and understand each other. Meanwhile the sociopaths were getting away with manipulating them all.

Oh an Entrapta? She doesn't stop to placate anyone's fragile feelings, such as with the Princesses, because ignorance is worse than not knowing what's really going on and the deeper plot that threatens the entire universe.

Anyways... I am not worthy to speak for ND but I suspect that he'd say calling Entrapta a villain wasn't what he wanted us to see. Or with many of the other characters. Entrapta is always doing her best, she's also kind to others. Calling her villain is so surface, it's meh.

Hope that makes sense.

p.s I know my posts are long, but its because I'm trying to answer all of the questions and misconstrued comebacks I've seen all at once, every question all at once. I do wish my writings could be shorter, but then I'd leave too many things open to confusion. Also, many questions are answered in my hyperlinks- more good meta to read with a hot cuppa somethin'☕️☺️ (all hyperlinks are on tumblr)

In a show where Catra and Adora struggle so much with becoming their true selves, Entrapta is always in touch with her most authentic self. She gives me all of the happy feelings 🥰

I know, it hurts to see her suffer. 😥 She shouldn't be made to doubt. Then again, what's being alive more than doubting? Each major character in SPOP does it. Her story has so much humanity 😌

Well said!! This is what I'm really saying when I talk about how the Princesses are privileged. Like, many privileged people accept the current economic order and that's wrong- it's destroying our environment and makes 3rd world counties impoverished. I see a real similarity in how the Princesses just accept their world order. Like irl, just because they don't know it's wrong doesn't make it any less wrong.

Thanks to anybody who hung out through this long post. If you like it, let me know. But reblogg if you can, because reblogs make the tumblr world go round ☺️💫🌍✨. Thanks for writing in op, I'm glad we agree on many things (some which I didn't have time to cover).

Happy Pride everybody!! ✨✨🏳️‍🌈✨✨!!!!

p.s if you have an ama pending I have received it and will respond just as soon as it's ready. Feel free to keep sending me asks my peoples!!

-Etheriadearie

[swearyshera]

I shall share my thoughts on these (no major spoilers!)

Beast Island: This one I've not got hugely detailed notes on, but those evil 'mind vines' are going to be fun to do in a painful way. Also Micah being a DAD.

Bow's One Time Swear: I always joke about just dropping it in randomly in a normal conversation, but I wouldn't do that. Or would I..?

Horde Prime: I have gone back and forth over how I'm going to do Horde Prime's character, to not only be humorous but also not end up making fun of things that aren't funny. To that end, I very much doubt I'll be making jokes about the clones having sex with him, because that power imbalance is just a little bit nope for me. That's not to say from the right perspective you can't joke about darker topic, but it's got to be done right and that is very difficult.

But, my intention is to make him a genuinely awful and unsettling character to see, and tease out humour from that in a way that doesn't punch down. Ideally, the reader will be on edge every time he's in a post, but we'll see how that pans out.

Queen Glimmer: Season 4 is when Glimmer thinks she has matured (season 5 is when she actually does), so it will be the time that her "I can fight whatever I like" persona starts to drop away. I think that in her first few episodes as Queen, she's afraid to make mistakes and that stops her from being her usual self (oh the irony), but as she grows more comfortable in her role towards the end of season 4, she gets that aspect of her personality back. But that, sadly, is what leads her to turning her back on her friends.

Double Trouble: I love DT, I really do, they are so much fun and they absolutely will be here! One thing I do know I'm going to change a little is their speech to Catra at the end of Destiny. I've seen a lot of people say it was inadvertently victim-blaming, so I shall remove the ambiguity and replace it with something that destroys Catra that little bit more. If in doubt, add more pain.

Save the Cat: I've not got a huge amount of notes, but the one I have around chipped Catra is either going to go down as terrifying (if I get it right) or offensive (if I get it wrong). No pressure there...

The Portal: I am actually about a third of the way through Remember as I write this, so I've gone through the happy Catradora moments and I'm onto the Adora breakdown. Changing the other characters in little but noticeable ways is quite fun, so I hope you enjoy that too.

For the final episode of season 3, I have a lot planned to make you laugh and cry. Mostly cry, I imagine. Adora and Catra's fight will see Adora say some stuff that really hits Catra; Adora and Angella's conversation before she goes for the sword will break you with three words. And the aftermath once they get back to Bright Moon? Good luck surviving that.

Bow and Glimmer's fight: I hate that they had to fight, but it will have to happen. Bow is learning over the course of the show that being a friend to someone doesn't always mean going along with what they want, and that you have to sometimes say 'no'. And the first time he actually does this with any meaning behind it, in Fractures, it shakes Glimmer because she's not expecting it - but Glimmer being Glimmer, she takes it entirely personally and lashes out verbally.

I feel like the way Bow matures in the show is often overlooked because it's a lot more subtle than Glimmer's 'impulsive kid to responsible adult' journey. Where she learns to think about other people more, Bow learns to think about himself more*, and this episode is when those two journeys clash.

(* not saying Bow becomes selfish, it's more that he learns to balance his needs with others' a lot better)

[manic-sapphic]

uggghh dude in spop s5e6 'taking control' tho

when adora basically tells catra "look ok fine, we're removing the chip forsure cause if we don't, i know horde prime will inevitably find you eventually and tbh i just dunno if i can live w worrying about that ok but also afterwards, if you really wanna be dropped off on the next planet - then alright i guess."

just omfg tho, the fact that what finally snaps catra in half but in regards to breaking her walls down i guess - what gets this gurl to finally be vulnerable w adora after all this time - what leaves her feeling absolutely defeated but in doing so, also forces her to give in and just fucking say how she feels/what she wants - something adora kinda needs tbh as the emotionally oblivious (but also very lovable) dummy she can often be - is simply just adora saying "you'll never have to see me again."

cause like, same as adora couldn't fucking handle fathoming losing catra for life when she thought she was straight gonna die in her arms during save the cat - catra couldn't conceive of an existence that didn't include adora in some way either. i mean, imo it's even why catra kept her close as an enemy in their time at odds w each other lol (aside from s4 when she thinks adora hates her now and will forever)

i think it's in the og script for save the cat - something i def rec looking up if you haven't read it btw - before bringing out catra, prime says something to adora along the lines of,

"of course. you're catra. bitter enemies, and yet, the two of you can never seem to stay away from from each other, can you?"

(ps i truly despise the way prime says catra's name tbh like it makes me so angry esp in his interactions mentioning her to adora before she comes out in save the cat.. like w this kinda condescending, mocking inflection. i fucking hate him so much lmao but i also know ain't no one tryna argue w me on that lol)

holy shit tho fr i get the decision to opt outta prime being the one to tell adora that she broke catra's heart - so much more weighted coming to adora from catra herself tbh. but there's another line i kinda woulda liked to see make it to the screen that also really got to me from the og script, it's something like "you used to talk of ruling the world together. up on that little spot on the roof that only you knew about. then you left... you broke her heart. you always wanted more... but all she ever wanted was you."

like honestly dude, if that minus the broke heart part - given as a line to catra later on in the ep instead - had actually been included in save the cat... hahaha omg idk if i coulda survived it tbh lol

and like just dude.. it's hard to fully fathom how fucking difficult it prob was for catra in that moment to swallow her pride, shut up the dumb neg self-talk in her head, and grab adora's hand before she could walk away. and omg, so so the most vulnerable moment we've yet to see for catra, aside from i guess maybe in the Promise ep where light hope fucks w both their heads so hard that catra does legit cry in front of adora -

[testudoaubrei-blog]

“I’m loyal, that’s my whole thing.” - Scorpia, Season 4 Episode 6, Princess Scorpia

“Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless” - Lonnie, Season 4 Episode 5, Protocol

Rewatching Season 4, I just finished Princess Scorpia. This is an episode that has always stuck with me, especially the A plot of Scorpia realizing how badly Catra has treated her and everyone else and deciding to leave. One thing I’ve been thinking about since I finished the series, though, is what this episode is telling us on a larger level. Looking beyond the character arcs and more at this show’s larger themes and message. Because this show is very much a show that says things, made by people who believe them. That earnestness and depth is one reason I keep coming back to it.

In the pull-quote above, and throughout the episode and before it, Scorpia defines herself in terms of loyalty. It is her identity - as she says, that’s what Scorpions do, they’re loyal. Her actions for three and a half seasons bear this out. When she first shows up, she tries to position herself as Catra’s new best friend, the one who won’t leave her and will stick by her no matter what. And that’s what she does, until this episode. She sticks by Catra through Catra’s increasingly villainous plots and erratic behavior. But she doesn’t just stick around. Until the portal, she barely contradicts Catra, and even afterwards, does so only furtively and immediately backs away as soon as Catra pushes back. For more than a year of show time, Scorpia has not just stood by Catra, or supported her, she’s actively assisted her in her most villainous and destructive acts. Scorpia is fighting by Catra’s side, eagerly carrying out her orders, and doing her utmost to see that Catra succeeds. But her loyalty goes beyond this practical help. Because for all that Catra loudly declares that she doesn’t need a new best friend, she consistently seeks out connection throughout the show, even when she’s at her most isolated in season 4. She needs moral support, and connection, and to know that she isn’t alone. Scorpia provides that, and keeps Catra going. Though Scropia isn’t initiating Catra’s various misdeeds, she’s assisting and supporting Catra throughout. On a personal, psychological level, the only word that seems adequate for this is ‘ennabling’ - Scorpia, sweet as she is, is Catra’s enabler. We see in the next few episodes what happens when Catra doesn’t have Scorpia’s support - she breaks down, and realizes that her actions really do have consequences, and that the affection she took for granted for so many years is something she can’t live without. But as long as Scorpia’s still around, Catra can’t make that realization.

Now I’m not going to say that Scorpia is morally culpable for Catra’s own actions. She’s not. Catra is solely responsible for her various betrayals, manipulations, violent outbursts and assorted murder attempts against...most of the rest of the cast (though being raised by Shadow Weaver sure as shit is a mitigating factor). But while Catra is obviously being a bad friend to Scorpia throughout, Scorpia isn’t actually being as supportive or helpful to Catra as she thinks, because Catra doesn’t actually need unconditional support, she needs people to be honest with her and express to her how she’s hurting them. She needs people who will stand up for themselves just as she needs to take responsibility for her own actions. This is part of why she and Adora have such a healthy dynamic in season 5 - Adora doesn’t take her crap, and Catra takes responsibility for her crap.

However, Scorpia -is- responsible for her own actions. And as I said above, she’s been with Catra every step of the way as Catra has attacked just about everyone and made war on Etheria. On a larger, political level, Scorpia is a willing participant in upholding the Horde’s oppressive system, and executing a war of aggression and colonization against innocent people. Speaking of colonization, perversely, she’s loyal to the very organization that dispossessed her and literally stole her birthright, then discarded it like a useless trinket when it was no longer useful to them. No one ever suggests ‘why don’t we let Scorpia connect with ~her runestone~’ until Glimmer does (and Glimmer’s motivations and arguments aren’t exactly forthright). Scorpia’s loyalty makes her an accomplice in her own oppression (like a bunch of the themes in this show there’s some interesting post-colonial stuff that the show doesn’t fully explore, probably because Noelle and the crew felt self-conscious about telling a post colonial story, or just didn’t know where to go with it). Interestingly, Scorpia’s loyalty to the Horde here parallels her loyalty to Catra, which has made her completely disregard her own wellbeing, which is the most obvious take away from the episode.

But I would argue that everything above shows that for Scorpia loyalty has been a way of avoiding developing her own moral compass. Scorpia repeatedly shoves aside questions of right or wrong in favor of being loyal to her friends and to the Horde. Loyalty has made Scorpia not only willing to accept her own mistreatment, but to willingly mistreat others, and to keep herself from asking any hard questions about what she’s doing or why. This is despite the fact that Scorpia is, by inclination, an incredibly gentle, kind and compassionate person. She’s willing to silence the best parts of her nature out of loyalty to Catra and the Horde. In the end, she also commits acts of violence and perpetuates the oppression of Etheria. And this is so insightful, because we see this sort of thing in our world all the time. So many oppressive institutions depend upon the loyalty of their members to keep them ‘just following orders’; so many abusive systems depend upon loyalty to stifle dissent and silence potential whistleblowers before they even speak. We see this in some of the most oppressive institutions and the worst scandals in our own society, and looking back through human history we see it in some of our nation’s and our species' most infamous crimes.

And when we look at the Horde as a system that Hordak has built in imitation of his elder brother’s empire, we see just how central loyalty is an ethos. Hordak himself is motivated entirely by loyalty to Prime - being a former clone, he spends the entire series not fully capable of accepting himself as an autonomous being (even when he acts like one and enjoys it, there’s some fucked up religious shit there that I won’t get into). He seems to have instilled this in his followers. The Horde Trio, Catra and Scorpia all hold loyalty as one of their highest values. Catra clings to it as her biggest accusation against Adora - that she was disloyal, as expressed in Catra’s perception that Adora broke her promise and abandoned her. Loyalty keeps the Horde Trio together and fighting for the Horde, and Scorpia with Catra. I think we can read between the lines and say the Horde runs on loyalty (as well as fear) and this is a very insightful portrayal of oppressive military and paramilitary institutions like armies of conquest and occupation and other instruments of state violence.

There’s another, related way of looking at how a sole reliance on loyalty as a moral framework has stunted Scorpia’s moral growth, and I think that brings together both the ways that it makes Scorpia willing to accept her mistreatment and participate in the mistreatment of others. Namely, loyalty in the Horde style isn’t just sticking with someone or something, but subsuming your own will into theirs. Following orders. Supporting your friend in what they do no matter what. Whatever you call it, it’s about turning off your own self - your self preservation, your self respect, your conscience, whatever other things you value - and just going along with what the person or institution you are loyal to wants you to do. And this is where Horde loyalty goes full circle, back to its origin - Horde Prime, the narcissistic self-made god who wishes to control or destroy everything that is not himself. Loyalty as Hordak conceived of it and as the Horde believes in it is a reflection of Prime's absolute control over all his domain.

In a way, self-determination is one of this show’s highest values (together with love). It’s at the heart of Adora’s 5-season, 3 year struggle to become her own woman and her own hero as she shrugs off one imposed destiny and then another and finally embraces what she wants. In a more negative form, it’s at the heart of Catra’s arc, as she finally accepts responsibility for her own actions and their consequences and starts working to make a world that she actually wants to live in, as well as admit to herself that what she really wants is love. And I could go on. This self-determination is existentially, obviously threatened by Prime chipping people, but it is also stunted by horde-style loyalty that demands unquestioning support and obedience.

Both the Horde Trio and Scorpia reject the Horde’s ideal of loyalty and walk away, but I think it’s interesting how they do it. Neither rejects loyalty entirely (not on the way Adora does) - the Trio, realistically, remain loyal to each other and simply walk away and walk out of the war (this might save their lives), joining the other disillusioned cynics in the Crimson Wastes. They reject loyalty to the horde and embrace a more supportive and respectful form of loyalty to each other. Scorpia leaves, but she actually comes to her crisis and makes her decision out of loyalty, and because it’s clear that her loyalty isn’t returned. The immediate situation - loyalty to Emily and Entrapta’s memory on one hand and Catra’s orders on the others - creates the conflict between loyalties that forces Scorpia to actually make her own choice rather than deferring to Catra. But she also reflects how Catra betrayed her loyalty to Entrapta, and thus how all of her friends’ loyalty to Catra is not returned.This is another point about horde-style loyalty - it’s one way - Hordak or Catra will demand your loyalty, but they feel no obligation to return it, which reflects Prime’s view of every other being in the universe as disposable. It’s only when she’s with the Princesses that Scorpia starts to find a new moral center, though sticking up for and protecting her friends remains important to her. In neither case, though, are these kinds of loyalty coming at the cost of either the Trio or Scorpia’s autonomy or ability to make moral choices of their own. In the very next episode, she says she wants to 'be A good friend' which is how the Princesses typically describe sticking together, which is a much more active and holistic concept than 'loyalty'. Scorpia confesses that she doesn't even know how, but she wants to learn and thinks the princesses can teach her.

There's another interesting counterexample to Horde Loyalty. Adora repeatedly breaks with the people around her to do what is right. First she leaves the Horde, then walks away from Catra by stages when it is clear that Catra is going to continue to harm other people and Etheria. Then she walks away from Glimmer, defies Light Hope and breaks loyalty with her supposed destiny and purposes as well as loyalty to the homelans she has never known. By season 5, Adora is loyal only to herself and the people she cares about, but she isn't constraining her will to anyone else's. For all that she seems like a rule follower Adora has a rebellious streak a mile wide, and she will do what is right, no matter what. This is what allows her to save the universe 3 times.

So the show’s argument is that loyalty is not a good moral framework to base all of our actions around. I don’t think it goes so far as saying that loyalty has no place in our ethics (being a good friend, which is such a huge part of the show, certainly includes loyalty, especially sticking with people when the going gets tough), but the show stresses time and again that being loyal to something or someone shouldn’t make you disregard yourself and what you think is right. Because it’s only by living out our own values and taking responsibility for our own actions that we can come into our own as moral beings. Moreover, if we insist on maintaining loyalty to institutions that oppress us and others, we can’t dismantle the systems of oppression that are holding us and other people down. (Yes, this is a pretty radical message, but I suspect that Noelle is some kind of anarchist? Anyway, it’s a thing.)

Okay, so that’s what I, a 35 year old, get from this kids show. I think it’s also worth pointing out that this lesson applies to younger viewers too, in their most immediate lives. Younger viewers will have had friends who didn’t treat them well, or might not have treated other people well, and who might have pressured them into participating in the mistreatment of others (this is kind of how bullying works a lot of the time). I think it’s important that younger viewers see how being a good friend never means disrespecting yourself or other people and it means a lot to me that She-Ra shows this in such a nuanced and realistic way.