#hello that one part of the entrapdak fandom- you know who you are- I am sick of all the awful 'mermista is an ABLEIST BULLY' takes

[the-entire-cast-needs-therapy]

Look Entrapta was having a pretty rough time in that episode. Absolutely feeling the Entrapta Feels. But like, I was just recently thinking.

Imagine that episode from MERMISTA'S perspective. Like, she's in charge, which is unusual but whatever, fine, she can totally do it (she's not sure she can do it). This mission is INCREDIBLY important, with a friend and the planet at stake. A crucial part of their plan is Entrapta, who recently re-joined the Rebellion (presumably because she was completely out of options considering the destruction of the Etherian Horde). Entrapta has a bright and cheerful attitude about the whole thing and seems to think the whole "defecting and helping the Horde wage war against them" thing is water under the bridge, if she acknowledges it at all. Then, during the mission, she starts making goo-goo eyes at one of Prime's robots, which draws unwanted attention and now this mission, which Mermista is leading, without Adora, just got even riskier. Because little miss what-is-considering-consequences has yet again gotten distracted by the shiny technology that seems to be her only motivation for doing ANYTHING.

Yeah. I'd be kind of pissed too. Obviously we, the audience know that there's more to Entrapta than a dangerously irresponsible tech-obsessed amoral airhead, but Entrapta wasn't in the rebellion long enough to show her depths to anybody else. By the end of the episode Mermista has adjusted her perception of Entrapta to "spacey geek who gets carried away sometimes and who I should probably be more direct with next time", but at the start? " Dangerously irresponsible tech-obsessed amoral airhead" is kind of all she's ever seen of Entrapta.

[tallysgreatestfan]

Transcript Entrapdak as Disability Representation

(link to video here)

(This video was recorded before season 5 where most of the fuckups happened, and before the panel that lead to such widespread hate and ableism, and I don’t have the resources right now to add commentary on that too. Also it seems that I vastly underestimated how much the point of both Entrapta and Hordak being villains means to other people, because it never particularly bothered me myself)

Hello everybody, I’m TallysGreatestFan, an autistic, bisexual, mentally ill writer and fanartist, and today I wanted to make a video analysis about Entrapdak, or Entrapta/Hordak, and disability representation.  This is my fist video analysis so I am a bit nervous. I hope this isn’t to much in my voice, but the topic intrigued me so much that I had to do it, and I am not comfortable with showing my face, so you can only see this manga face in the video.

Trigger warnings are for suicidal thoughts – oh god I can’t pronounce this, sorry, English isn’t my first language -, ableism and at the end there is also a small part that is not safe for work.

Since the first time I watched the series I’ve been thinking about how much Entrapta and Hordaks representation means for me in terms of disability representation, but for some reason that’s not an especially widespread meta topic in the fandom, and I really couldn’t understand it because for me its so obvious and comes so clearly from the topic at hand, but maybe its only so obvious because I am autistic, I don’t know.

First about the basics. I am so glad about this representation. So Entrapta is canonically autistic, its actually even in her character sheets (I link that in the description), and probably also has ADHD, and there even is a scene where she is stimming in front of the screen. So stimming is certain repetitive patterns, of, I don’t know, hand movement, body movement, stuff like that, that either calm or the autistic person does because they are really happy. In this example Entrapta does that because she is so excited about learning about the portal.

And then there is Hordak, and he is physically disabled, as is relatively easily seen as soon as his armor is off. It is not really specified what exactly it is, but maybe that is also because he himself does not really know what it is.

And yes, they’re both villains

and there is this longstanding tradition of villains having disabilities to show how evil they are, because there is, I think its still from the time of the Nazis, that, there is this idea that a broken, wrong, body can only have a broken, wrong mind… which is really gross, but its still in the consciousness of society, basically, and its still in many, many villains.

But in their case… I am not really sure what to think about it, to be honest, but in their case it is not really that they are villains because they are disabled, but that they are villains because of how shitty their society treated them and other factors.

On tumblr I found a very good test for disability representation: I’m really sure you all know the Bechdel Test, which is for representation of women in media, and this one is basically the Bechdel Test modified for disability representation.

Version one is:

1. There is an disabled character

Which we have with Entrapta who is autistic and Hordak who is physically disabled

2. ...who wants something…

Entrapta wants to gather knowledge of science and built better machines and robots and built a portal and Hordak wants to prove himself worthy to fight in the army of Horde Prime again.

3. …besides revenge, cure or death

Entraptas goals, science, is even against her own wellbeing sometimes, and it has almost nothing to do with her disability except for that it’s her special interest. For Hordak it’s a bit more complicated, because it is motivated from his disability, but not really that he wants a cure but that society, aka Horde Prime, brought him this idea into his mind that he is not worth something unless he does certain things. So I think this still counts as fitting this criteria.

And 4 is: And tries to get it

Which they both do. They both try to meet these goals and undergo problems and are not passive characters

Then there is a second version of this, a never version, where 1 is: There is an disabled character

Again, their disabilities are shown in the series

2. Who strives for their own goal

Entrapta strives for scientific knowledge and Hordak strives for conquering Etheria

And 3: Not motivated by a tragedy of their disability

For Entrapta this is a clear pass, because she wants science, this has nothing to do with her being autistic. For Hordak it’s a bit unclear, because it is a tragedy for him, but its not the disability itself but the reaction of others to it, so I think it’s still a pass, if a really, really narrow one.

And 4: And they are still alive and disabled at the end

Again, Entrapta passes that really easily; she is both alive at the end and still autistic, and has not be cured, and Hordak is still physically disabled at the end, but is more or less killed, but I’m pretty sure it will be not permanently, so I think it’s also a pass

This whole test was created by the tumblr user aegipan-omnicorn (hope I pronounced this correctly) and I link to that in the description.

I’m just so glad to finally see myself on screen. Someone who has the same traits and problems as I do. I mean there are accidentally other relatable characters, such as Tilly from Star Trek Discovery, Spock from Star Trek The Original Series, Data from Star Trek The Next Generation or Lennier from Babylon 5, but it’s never canonically with them. And I only know three (three!) other characters at all, in all the media I ever consumed, who are canonically autistic and well portrayed. Think about that.

It’s intensely isolating starting to believe one just isn’t hero material because of how one is and one never sees oneself in the media one sees. Thinking one is too selfish, to cold, not quite human enough, and all these other ableist ideas shared by articles and media. I can’t actually speak for physically disabled people, because I am not physically disabled, obviously, but I am pretty sure the representation for them is just as shitty as for us.

But what intrigued me even more is both of them together, as an relationship between two people who are disabled in very different ways. One single accurate disabled character is already very rare, and a disabled character in a happy, healthy relationship is even more rare, because that plays into this ableist idea that disabled people can’t contribute to a relationship and so are burdens to everyone around them. And I… I hate this idea so much and this hurt me so much, and I think it was a very large contributor to how bad my mental health became at times, as it’s just… hearing or reading again and again that who you are is a burden and people you love would be better off without you its just…

And furthermore there is this ableist idea that disabled people are somehow unfinished, or childlike, and so both can’t have sexual relationships, or meaningful adult relationships at all, and actually, this is something that is actually to see in the criticism of antis against this ship, who say all the time that “Entrapta can’t decide for herself because she is autistic!” and “It’s pedophilia!” (what tumblr seems to say to every relationship, it’s pretty annoying?), or that it’s a power imbalance, and they don’t even realize just how disgusting this is, to say that because someone is autistic they can’t decide for themselves, that’s a really, really harmful trope and really condescending, and I hate this – but well that’s antis. What do you expect.

And it’s even more rare to see two disabled characters in a relationship with each other. Because of all of the above, and maybe also because of some kind of “surprise, they don’t need us!” towards the able bodied, neurotypical watchers.

And again it’s so refreshing to see that on screen. Relationships like mine. Because the thing able bodied neurotypicals often forget is how isolating being disabled can be. ‘Cause everybody does things one way but you do it another way, because you can’t do it that way or it just doesn’t work for you, and this is because of how your environment treats you, not of the disability itself most of the time.

It can be really harsh, like being outcast for showing problems in something you should function in, like it is for Hordak, like failing at tasks you think determine your worth, and not daring to do things because this would make you to vulnerable, and I know this very much too, even in a much, much lesser extent, I actually tie my self worth close to my academic success to compensate for my autism.

It can also be not being understood and being ridiculed and failing at relationships and friendships like it is for many neuroatypical and mentally ill people.

So this scene on Beast Island where Entrapta gives in and these roots grow out of her – this was just so painful for me but also kind of healing, because I know this feeling so much. It’s this thought of: I can’t hold friendships, nobody cares for me, why not just give up and die?

Both of these things hurt and takes its tool.

One single instance does not seem like much but repeated, it’s just lets you seek the fault with yourself, because if different people do it to different times but I am always there it has to be me, right?

Also there is this underlying idea in media that we are worthless and a burden because of our disability.

It’s hard to understand for friends and acquaintances not under all this stuff just how damaging it is. And then you feel alone, not just because of your missing social sense, that can make friendships hard to maintain, but also because they don’t understand why you feel so worthless and a burden and hate yourself so much.

But here, in She-Ra, you actually have two disabled people who feel wrong and like failures finding comfort and acceptance in each other.

It’s so touching and healing, even, how Entrapta and Hordak understand these feelings of being broken and not enough in each other, despite their very different disabilities. And so they reassure each other that they are not a defect and a failure for it. They understood each others pain, but because they know it so well from themselves, they were able to help each other out of it. And that’s… that’s really beautiful.

I mean recovering takes long, more than one scene, but that’s a beginning.

And I still remember what a wonderful moment it was for me myself to see the whole of me in another person for the first time, knowing that I’m not alone anymore.

And I am very glad for the two of them that they were allowed to have that.

 The last part is slightly not safe for work, so more about the fandom than the series itself, because it’s a childrens show and can’t, by its very nature, show sex of the characters as such, but that’s what fanfiction and fanart is for.

I just love the huge amount of fanwork for them. Especially how the Entrapdak fandom treats them as consenting, sexual adults, not as if they had to be protected from that – except for asexual interpretations but asexuality is not the absence of something but knowing that you don’t want something. It’s so rare to see sexual disabled people because of this infantilization I talked about earlier. And it’s so wonderful to read or see them exploring that part of themselves, not as “Ugh, disabled people having sex!” or “look how special it is because they are disabled” but just as themselves, as an experiment, as they treat most things in live. Of course it’s a bit awkward because there is this widespread headcanon in fandom that they were both virgins, and of course if one starts from that it’s a bit awkward, and then one of course has to take Hordaks physical disability into account, because sex just is physically exhausting sometimes, or maybe Entraptas sensory issues also play a role in that and interfere, but I actually mean that they are treated as people.

And I also really, really love just how much the fandom is horny for both of them. And… I mean I can very much understand that, because it’s one of these ships where you are glad that you are bisexual because you can find both of them hot at the same time, and the two of them together is even more hot. And Entrapta with her sharp features and wiry built and… she has actually a really sweet personality. And Hordak with his… these cheekbones and his hips, and he is actually kind of awkward sometimes and really cute in that – which one wouldn’t have expected in the first season, but he is. And I love how the [Entrapdak] fandom treats them as people they desire, not as something special, if that makes sense.

Also I really love how Entrapta is allowed to be dominant and Hordak is allowed to be submissive, even though these are traditionally the other way around. I actually know a few ships that have a similar dynamic, but where the fandom is disgusted by that or treats it as abusive or stuff like that but here it is not like that but they just accept it and play with it, and that’s beautiful. And also really healing for someone who doesn’t fit into this traditional expectation of sexuality either.

I especially love these fanart where Entrapta ties him up with her hair, and he is a bit shocked but very much into that, and she likes it very much too. It’s just wonderful to see a woman like that, and not have her ridiculed or looked at strangely for that, but just accept it that it’s just how she is. But that’s another topic.

So in conclusion I wish that there was more representation like them, but I love how they are treated by the fandom, or at least that part of fandom, the antis obviously don’t get all these things and play very much into ableism.

I actually have a tumblr post with most of what I said here in the description, and also some videos I found really helpful for doing this, and of course the link to the fanart.