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thestargayzingetherian · 1 month ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Option 1.2 - Catra does join the rebellion.

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

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

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

Option 1.25 Catra becomes She-Ra

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Option 4 - Catra is exiled to Beast Island.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#catradora #spop #she-ra #catra #adora #starfics #She-Ra What If #random post #glimmer #bow #shadow weaver #fic ideas

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girl4music · 2 months ago

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Those last 2 episodes. Appropriately titled ‘Heart Part 1’ and ‘Heart Part 2’ because my heart is so full. I have so much to say and have no idea where to start with it.

So much happened. Every lead character’s individual arc was thoroughly concluded in a very satisfying way. Even some of the recurring ones got an endgame so there’s a lot to cover in this recap of a fantastic finale and I feel so fulfilled on great storytelling and great representation packed into a neatly tied up ending.

MAJOR SPOILERS: do not read this if you have not seen the finale of ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’.

I guess I’ll start with Shadow Weaver because she had an endgame that I had predicted. Well, sort of. I said that Shadow Weaver’s arc can only go in 1 of 2 ways. I said it was either personal attainment (villainy) or personal sacrifice (heroism). So I wasn’t surprised when it was the latter. But I wasn’t able to trust in her going that way sincerely until she started attacking that monster, told Catra that she was proud of her, took off her mask and then told them both ‘you’re welcome’. I couldn’t trust that she was sincerely helping them to achieve releasing and channelling the Heart of Etheria’s magic… which by the way, is what almost brought them to the brink of destruction the first time they tried to do it. However, I understood that because She-Ra was the conduit for that, that it could have a different outcome. Still destructive but destructive only to the opposition. I think anyway. I might have to rewatch that part again because I don’t think I fully understood what was going on there. But yes, Shadow Weaver went out in a heroes death rather than was the cause of her own demise out of hunger for power and a desire to attain the magic of the Heart Of Etheria for selfish aim. I was happy with it.

Glimmer and Bow: I decided to talk about these 2 lead characters together since part of their arc involves each other. It was no surprise to me that they would declare their love for each other. I mean Glimmer has always had a crush on Bow and they’ve been the very best of friends since they were children. I wasn’t sure about Bow at first but I knew intense romantic feelings would develop and I’m glad it was Glimmer who said it first. I am a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a kiss on the lips but I think I understand why that was. I’ll get there. Be patient. There’s way too much to talk about first and I really want to save Catradora until the very last section because I’ll have the most to say about them as a lot of their arc informs well… pretty much the whole TV show.

Glimmer individually had more of an arc in the TV show than Bow did so a significant amount of my meta goes to her. It was mainly how she was fairing as Queen but also how useful she could be to the team because of it. Then of course there was Micah. Reuniting with him but having to battle with him because he was an unwilling agent of Horde Prime. I laughed with pure joy when the influence on him ended and he said “Hi, I’m your dad.” I really felt for Glimmer when she was desperately trying to heal him and she said “I won’t lose another parent!” So it was so satisfying for me to realize she healed him and that she poured all the love she could into that heal and when she succeeded, the proud smile that he wore must have made her feel like Queen of the world, never mind just her little town of Brightmoon. She deserves it.

Likewise it was wonderful to see how proud Bow’s dads were of him when he gave that rousing battle speech to the reawakened masses of Etherians, telling them to be their own warriors and fight for their home. It was right that it was Bow to do that rather than Adora or Glimmer because that is what he had trained himself to do from the beginning. He wants to be an archer battling on the side of the greater good and not a historian. So to see his dads holding each other, proudly watching him… it brought a tear to my eye, I have to admit. So beautiful!

Hordak and Entrapta: I had no idea that I would get a closure for Entrapta, let alone Hordak. I did and I’m so happy about it because even though she was only a recurring character, Entrapta buried her way into my science, tech and engineering loving heart (with a spanner and a blowtorch? You will never know 🤣) but I am glad that she got over her obsession enough to focus on what really mattered. Saving her friends.

The fact that what stopped Horde Prime wasn’t Adora or Glimmer or who you would expect, but Hordak and Entrapta? That hit so hard with me. To give THEM the hero moment of defeating the villain. I was like “Oh my god! That’s brilliant!” Because it is. Think about it. Who do you think Horde Prime tortured the most? His Little Brother! I still don’t know if that was literally or not. 🤷‍♀️ Was he actually related or was he just another clone because he did call Catra his “Little Sister” too? That’s still so creepy to me. But yeah, for Hordak to get that moment of retribution was absolutely delicious for me and then for Entrapta to reach him when Horde Prime tried to take over through the Hive Mind? So, so, good! That made total sense and it was brilliantly executed!

Scorpia and Mermista: The only reason to lump these 2 characters together is because they were chipped and controlled the longest that they caused significant damage to Etherians. There’s not really much to say about them other than that they’re going to have huge headaches now that this is all over due to how far gone they were. I mean I’m glad that they were able to save them but I just don’t know what the aftermath will be for them or whether they will be the same ever again.

From the way I watched and interpreted the TV show, I understood that one of the main narrative themes of it was psychological conditioning and I’ve been in awe that this children’s show was brave enough to tell that very dark story,… let alone see it right through until the end because it’s an ambitious, elaborate and difficult narrative undertaking. Especially to do it properly,… which they definitely did. To tell the darkness of… well… basically radicalization and genocide but to do so in such a way that it could teach and motivate kids to develop on their innate judgement and discernment so if - god forbid - they ever end up in that situation, they’ll know exactly what to do about it. With team She-Ra being their idols, they’ll be able to fight conditioning. I can imagine that’s what the creators intended with this and I cannot acknowledge and commend them on it high enough. I think that ND Stevenson and the entire creative team are incredibly courageous and amazing to make this a main thematic narrative all throughout this TV show and handle it with skill and compassion that it does not once come across as too much for PG.

Catradora: (Yes, I’m using the ship name because the way they tie up their individual character storyline arcs seamlessly also ties in with their romantic arc and you do not know how hard it is to find this with WLW ships.)

First off, I want to point out something that may or may not have been pointed out before with Catradora but this is just how it came across to me in the narrative given I interpret psychological conditioning as a main theme within it. To me, a lot of the reason why Catra is the way she is as a villainous character when it comes to receiving love and affection has do with this factor. She’s so closed off and repressed to the point that she cannot even see that she’s corrupting and sabotaging herself. She is a lot like Xena in this way. But a major striking difference for Catra is that she physically loses the one person in the world that stops her from doing this, whereas Xena physically gains that one person. Trust issues, abandonment issues, parental issues all tie in together - but that was all tolerable when Adora was around her. As soon as Adora leaves her behind in the Fright Zone and, furthermore, begins to oppose her as the hero of Etheria, she spirals so hard and so fast that all of those issues - which were always issues caused by the abusive treatment from Lord Hordak and Shadow Weaver - come crashing down one by one on top of her because she no longer has the person who makes those issues just inconveniences for her. Not only that but … it feels like personal betrayal for her that Adora fights her. She genuinely does think that Adora hates her. I mean who wouldn’t if they were in her shoes (paws?) and had the “upbringing” and “nurturing” backstory she’s had? So Catra has this preconceived notion that Adora never cared about her and left her because she thought she was better than her and was chasing after heroic glory and believes that she was too weak to go with her. In a way it’s a personal vendetta out of misunderstandings Catra has against Adora and those feelings are intense not just because the Horde brainwashing is that deep and severe but also because her love is that deep too and she can’t differentiate which feelings are which. So she becomes She-Ra’s mortal enemy because in her mind, She-Ra is what has taken Adora away from her.

But obviously, from Adora’s side, She-Ra was sprung on her, Etheria was sprung on her. In fact her entire world upended once she recognized her life for what it was. A lie. That she was the villain brutalizing innocent people. She couldn’t go back to them even if she had wanted to because everything she had ever knew was fraudulent and she had been coerced and deceived into being a weapon. And what I really like about Adora’s individual arc is that eventually this was revealed to be true on both sides of the war. She was a weapon for evil and for the greater good. But all she wanted - as all heroes do - was just to protect and defend her loved ones. That’s it. Catra could never see it that way though and it makes sense that she couldn’t given her conditioning was even worse as it involved one-on-one attacks from Shadow Weaver as well as whatever the treatment was with the entire group. Catra’s psychological conditioning was much more personal, intimate and isolated so what was ingrained into her had much deeper and stronger layers added on to it. Hers was a solid brick wall built trauma complex. Those are always much harder to recognize and escape from but with the right therapy,… it can be done. Given her issues weren’t so bad when Adora was around her but got much worse when Adora left her… it is clear that Adora represented a sort of therapy for her. Adora helped her keep all the crippling thoughts of self-doubt and self-contempt at bay. But they were on full volume when Adora left and kept attempting to kill her.

Okay, so let’s finally get on to their romantic arc and how the finale not only concluded their individual character representation and development arcs but also ended their ship slow burn. It wasn’t until the fantastic episode of ‘Save The Cat’ did I realize they were going there. See,… to start with, I knew that they were going to become a canon WLW couple at some point otherwise I would have never started watching it. That was the draw for me. That they were both lead characters in a canon WLW ship in a children’s TV show. That floored me. But I was not prepared at all for what I got to see in the finale. It was groundbreaking. It was phenomenal. In fact I’m sure it was life changing for many queer kids to see that kiss happen the way it did. Or… just happen on-screen at all. Look, I am so used to the “implied” and “assumed” and “disguised” when it comes to WLW physical intimacy that I just do not ever expect blatant leaves-absolutely-no-doubt-whatsoever kisses. I certainly don’t expect WLW kisses written and portrayed as “the power of love” kind. It’s extremely rare. To see it in a children’s show nailed me to the floor. But furthermore - added on to that astonishing feat - is that both lead characters overcome all their issues and obstacles through that very act like… a fairytale story. It’s like… when the Princess kisses the Princess, all is well… there’s no stopping either from that point on. It seems corny but it all just depends on how it’s done. But the fact is you don’t see it done between WLW at all. So to see it done WELL alongside seeing it done at all… I mean Indy knew that he had an assignment with this but the phrase “he understood the assignment” doesn’t cover or justify what was accomplished with this and I can’t believe it’s took me this long to see it.

Every TV art/entertainment creator should watch this TV show and regard this finale as the perfect example of what queer representation can and should provide in TV because this was just the epitome of what true love is. But the fact it was between 2 female lead characters.

I can’t even begin to explain how much it meant to me but I will spend the rest of my life trying to express it because this really was a groundbreaking achievement and I will be adding this WLW ship to my very short list of WLW ships that shape and satisfy every piece of me.

I have had the best fucking time watching this TV show and I will be doing reruns of it for god knows how long because I am sure there is so much more there for me just like there is with Xena, Buffy, Charmed, Dragon Ball Z, Wynonna Earp and Arcane. All these beloved shows are timeless to me for a reason and She-Ra is the same.

I hope you all enjoyed reading my recaps of my very first watch of ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. 🎄

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