#it's not catra's fault that she got abused by shadow weaver

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

catra: it's YOUR fault the world is ending, YOU are responsible for all the horrible things happening in this world even though you had no hand in any of it

fans:

adora: i mean, you are kind of disrespectful to shadow weaver

fans: OMG ADORA IS AN ABUSER HOW DARE SHE VICTIM BLAME CATRA-

[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.

[starlight-bread-blog]

Ememy Vs. Abuser: Catradora

Disclaimer: Netflix doesn't allow me to take screenshots. I tried to find clips on Youtube but a lot of these are stolen. And an obvious tw for abuse.

When Catradora antis bring up how Catra abused Adora in seasons 1-4, a lot of people seem to be confused. The go-to defense is the following:

"Catra and Adora were enemies, they were put against each other in many battles. The 'abuse' is just what you'd normally expect from enemies to lovers".

A complelling argument, for sure. How can you expect of Catra to not be violent with someone who was put against her? The answer to this question can be answered through a different question: Why is Catra the abuser? Why not Adora?

What's the difference between an enemy, and an abuser?

1# The aggressor is particularly cruel to their future partner.

Catra doesn't use her claws on real people very often. She mostly uses them on objects or robots (or Shadow Weather's mask).

At times, it's clear tnat she would gain a lot from using her claws, but she doesn't.

One might suggest that it's because she understands the full weight of using them. Whatever the case may be, there is a person she doesn't seem to have these reservations about: Adora.

2# Their intreractions contain emotional abuse.

Catra often blames Adora for things that aren't her fault. She's cruel to Adora, deliberately and viciously hurts her.

She makes mean spirited remarks and belittles her.

Additionally, Catra gaslit her.

And wouldn't you know it, she takes pride in having control over Adora.

3# There is no balance.

As we previously established, Catra has no problem being needlessly cruel to Adora. But is Catra in the same danger? It it at least mutually toxic?

It's not. Adora can fight and defend herself, but won't do more than she needs. Meanwhile, Catra seem to relish in brutalizing her.

Further more, moments that could be considered romantic build up in their own, "spicy" way, are positioned with Catra on top, where Adora has no choice but to comply, where she's stuck there.

4# The aggressor got in the victim's head.

Adora has a guilt complex. That's not a controversial take. She takes too much responsibility and thinks everything is her fault. A lot of this stems from Shadow Weaver, but there's another source.

And Adora is very quick to internalize her cruel remarks.

In Conclusion:

Catra and Adora's relationship can and was abusive during the war. They share specific patterns of abusive relationships even at war zone. Catra hurting Adora isn't all war stuff, it's personal, it's abusive.

[adorawasright]

alright, please correct me if i'm wrong. but in s5, do they ever bring up the fact glimmer was manipulated by shadow weaver?

weirdly enough, glimmer and catra don't actually bond over that. they were both victims of shadow weaver. they're very much alike, you could say they're narrative foils (which they explore in s4). but the main difference being the fact glimmer recognizes her mistakes and tries to do something about it. catra, though, just continues to run away from her problems and refuse to admit she's wrong.

and another relevant thing to bring up here is that shadow weaver also pitted glimmer and adora against each other, the same way she raised catra and adora. i'm surprised this specific conversation never happened. catra could've finally realized that adora had no fault in anything. it was always their abuser's fault.

but instead, catra and glimmer just bond over adora, and not even in a very endearing way, since they're making fun of adora sleep fighting. which is clearly a trauma response. but adora's suffering is either funny or sexy, for some twisted reason.

anyway, i do sort of recall a scene where micah gets angry at shadow weaver, but i don't remember if he explicitly brings up the fact SW manipulated his daughter. i'm guessing he does, but it's probably never mentioned again (considering micah gets chipped later on). which is sad because father AND daughter were taken advantage of by the same woman. but given this show's history of handling trauma, well, we don't see that happen properly.

(micah would also be very fucking pissed if he found out catra is the reason why angella is gone. and i'm guessing that's why he got chipped. but that's a topic for another post)

i hate this. i hate how glimmer is handled in s5. she lost her mother, she was manipulated and almost lost adora, and she still goes through a hard time. while i'm not saying bow shouldn't have been angry with her, because glimmer did mess up, i don't like the fact glimmer suffers more than catra, who arguably did worse things than she did. glimmer deserved so much better.

[spopsalt]

An excuse vs a reason a "She-Ra the Princesses of Power" and "Rick and Morty" comparison"

I think I would like Catra a lot more if we got the reason why she did what she did, instead of the show just excusing everything, yes, Shadow Weaver's abuse of her was horrible, and I do feel bad for her when she was a kid, but you can't just use that to excuse all the horrible things she did. It doesn't help that Catra constantly shows that she doesn't feel like she has to take responsibility for her own actions, she literally says in one episode to Shadow Weaver "You made me like this and you want to be the good guy now?!" Yes, Shadow Weaver certainly played a role in Catra being who she is now, but in the end, Catra still has a choice, and her actions are hers and hers alone. But nope! Let's just excuse it all because of sad kitty cat who had a bad past!

A show that shows the reason well is "Rick and Morty" spoilers ahead for Rick and Morty, now the main character of the show "Rick Sanchez" is certainly a horrible, horrible person. There is no denying that, but I still like him, he is in fact, my favorite character. Due to him being legitimately funny and complex, his character is a ton of fun to analyze. And, what's better, they provide a reason for why he is how he is, but it's not an excuse. In the season 5 finale "Rickmurai Jack" we learn that his wife and child were brutally killed by Rick Prime in front of him due to him refusing to abandon them, and in the season 2 finale "Wedding Squanchers" Birdperson got shot when Rick showed kindness towards him with a heartwarming toast at his wedding. Whenever he shows kindness to people, it comes back to bite him. Now he's undeniably cruel to his grandson, Morty. He does genuinely love Morty, this is shown multiple times (Rick being kind to Morty and supporting him after someone attempted to assault Morty, and killing the person who attempted to assault him in "Meeseeks and Destroy", Rick sacrificing himself for Morty in "A Rickle in Time", Rick using his body to shield Morty from bullets in "Edge of Tomorty, Rick, Die, Rickpeat", etc.) but every time he's shown kindness to someone, it's come back to bite him in some way, which is the reason why he's so cruel to Morty, but it doesn't excuse it.

He is held accountable for his actions, for example, his relationship with Morty is slowly deteriorating. We see this when Morty attempted to shoot him (With a fake gun but Morty didn't know that) in "Rickshank Rickdemption" with no guilt, even saying "Who's stupid now bitch?!" after he thought that Rick died. He happily left him for dead with no guilt in "Edge of Tomorty, Rick, Die, Rickpeat" and even Morty's biggest fear being that Rick doesn't care about him in "Fear No Mort" He even pushes Rick away when Rick hugs him back in said episode, due to being terrified that he would still be in the hole if Rick did so.

That's not it, however, his best friend (And possible crush, he definitely did like him in the past) Birdperson started distancing himself from Rick when Rick chose not to tell him about his child, due to him being scared that Birdperson would be too busy child-rearing to hang out.

Rick also never blames anyone else for his actions, he never tries to say that Rick Prime is the reason why he's the horrible person he is now, he never tries to say that he isn't at fault for his actions, because, as stated above, his actions are his and his alone. We see him acknowledge that he is in control of his actions in season 4 episode 2 "The Old Man and The Seat" where holograms of himself tell him "Sit there all by yourself and think about how nobody wants to be around you, and how you ruin it for yourself because you're a huge piece of shit." And we see this again in the season 4 finale "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" where solemnly states "Holy shit, I'm a terrible father."

We see the reason why he did it, so we are able to feel for him, but it doesn't excuse his behavior, which is part of why I love him so much, and why you should give the reason why a character does they do certain things and not an excuse.

[aprillikesthings]

okay one more tonight

Which according to netflix is s3 ep1 but ehhhhh it's really a continuation of s2 imho

The Price of Power

(ominous)

I told myself I'd make this post shorter than the last few and I'm 99% I completely failed lol but this one had a LOT of lore and shit

AAAUGH

Angella's protectiveness is usually annoying but tbh I would feel the same way here in her situation, anyway Glimmer got it from somewhere lol

low blow, Shadow Weaver

I couldn't figure out why she woke up gasping so hard even though I just watched the last episode like three hours ago lol (Hordak had cut off her air until she passed out, and this is where she woke up, poor thing)

Catra: "It doesn't matter what I do. I don't get to win." :( but also "winning" should not be the objective of your life and you will spend the next season and a half being forced to learn that

Once again Scorpia's obvious one-sided love is painful to watch.

I hate that she's not entirely wrong!!! Like given her life up to this point of course she'd come to this conclusion. D:

Glimmer: The Horde is evil, and EVIL PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE Adora: I'm standing right here. Like you're literally talking to me.

(Okay but it's often true in the case of abusers, especially in romantic relationships. If you haven't read "Why Does He Do That" you should. Majority of abusers don't change for long--he talks about the circumstances under which they do, but repeatedly notes that it's very very rare and that a lot of them are good at faking improvement just for the amount of time it takes to get you under their control again. In any case that's why if people believe your partner is abusing you, the universal advice is "you need to leave.")

uggggh and the worst part is, she's actually right about a number of people in the Horde! I always knew it was a matter of time before Scorpia left the Horde, for instance.

But Shadow Weaver? Adora wants to believe this because Shadow Weaver was her mom, basically.

that's not how it works!!!

NOT REALLY.

I know I'm going to end up referencing this post again later, but it's worth a read:

"You think Shadow Weaver should have had a redemption arc? From her perspective, she DID." It also compares her arc to Catra's.

(spoilers for the rest of the show obv)

Anyway Bow and Glimmer offer to go with her, which is a good thing to do if you're ever going to try to talk things out with your abuser, because 1. they behave better in front of witnesses, generally speaking 2. other people are more likely to spot manipulative bullshit

yeeeurgh the way she says it is so icky

seriously she lays it on thick "oh I've missed you my child" eat dirt. Even after Adora's like "lol nice try" she's still like "oooh, so clever, I always knew you were smarter than everyone else" like you're still doing it.

"I was special only as long as I obeyed you" damn right

Compassionate to a fault as always, but also, I know there's still that bit of hope in there, the same one Catra had, of making her happy and finally getting loved. Adora has a huge advantage Catra didn't, though; which is that she has a great deal of love in her life from other sources. :(

Hordak: I am Evil and Scary!!! And I want Catra GONE. Entrapta: Yeah, okay. So anyway like I was saying, Catra's improved everything, but also, we need her to get us this thing!!! Hordak: No. Go away. Entrapta: :( k but I'll leave the info here for you to read on your own

The sad thing is, Shadow Weaver can be a good teacher.

ngl that's cool

also ugh. Shadow Weaver is in fact honest here: she's got nowhere to go, she wants revenge, helping Adora's the best way to do that.

plotty stuff I want to remember later: Hordak's goal is opening a portal into space to get Horde's armies through and defeat Etheria forever--and this is the first time a bunch of characters find out the Horde is bigger than one army on Etheria, and the reason he's close to getting that portal now is that Entrapta is helping him, and that once upon a time Hordak did succeed in opening a portal for a moment, and Adora was the result--she wasn't born on Etheria.

Glimmer: you're a fuckin' liar Shadow Weaver: I mean usually yeah lol. But like, why would I bother this time, what would I get out of it?

has anyone written an essay/post/paper about Adora as a bit of a Jesus figure

(I mean a LOT of people treat She-Ra like she's a messiah equivalent? But uhhhh that's also just how The Chosen One trope tends to go. Plus Jesus didn't resurrect himself so he could kiss a girl--though he did choose to show himself post-resurrection to Mary Magdalene first, so interpret that as you will.)

Anyway Adora kinda flips out at this information (she knows in her bones that Shadow Weaver is telling the truth) and bolts from the room

airbrush THAT on the side of a van lol

The way she screams "answer me!" at Light Hope is so good

Adora: babies don't remember shit????? Light Hope: oh.

There's a "vaginas are portals to another dimension bc childbirth" joke in there somewhere.

plot plot the First Ones came from beyond the stars, the sword is made to only respond to "one of their own kind," congrats Adora you're literally a different kind of person than every other person on Etheria.

(the timelines on this are confusing to me, I can't remember if Mara taking Etheria into another dimension also fucked with time passing, OH HEY I FOUND A FAN-MADE TIMELINE no idea how accurate it is tho especially considering the number of typos/misspellings, also elsewhere someone said each season of the show is apparently meant to be a whole YEAR?? I was thinking a few months at most??? I need to find if that's Word of God anywhere)

Theoretically yes but Netflix doesn't have the rights to any of the He-Man stuff, sorry

When Mara cut Etheria off from the rest of the universe she destroyed the portal capabilities. If you open a portal now bad shit will go down

(uh oh)

Adora: omg Mara's from the same place as me???

LIAR

Light Hope: being She-Ra is an honor!

Oh look it's one of the major themes of the show! Being The Chosen One sucks, actually!!

GEE, REALLY??? you think maybe people like getting to fuckin' cHOOSE

Adora: man I am tired of people not telling me shit!! Fuck this I'm gonna see what I can actually figure out on my own

She wants to know why Mara stranded Etheria. Remember that constellation being over part of the Crimson Waste that was in the whole "Mara portal Serenia" message bullshit? That's where she's going

Glimmer and Bow: road trip! road trip!

i'd be pissing myself in fear ngl

Hordak: this bitch is a failure!!! Catra: no u

everyone's reaction to that is priceless omg

LOL SHE'S RIGHT THO does Hordak want to spend his day looking at files listing how many bits of armor they need

I was gonna make an Entrapta joke but the next line is "and that's why you can't defeat a group of teenagers" and damn she's got a POINT

BAAAHAHAHAH

"My girlfriend doesn't want to do stacks of paperwork and shit either, it turns out; anyway you're going to get us some old spare parts First Ones' tech from the Pick-n-Pull Crimson Waste"

(I just realized people might not know what a Pick-n-Pull is--it's like a junkyard of cars where you can go and just take parts off of things for cheap. You have to find and take the parts off yourself.)

Catra: dude nothing lives in the Crimson Waste??? Hordak: heh heh I know :)

AAAND END OF EPISODE

Sadly I have the energy for another one but my headphones are killing me and I can't do it in the bedroom without headphones because Daci is trying to sleep. Which is a shame because the next episode is Huntara!!

ALSO y'know that timeline I linked way earlier in the post? parts of it are kinda iffy but I'm lol'ing because good lord as bananas as the lore can sometimes be, I'm still thinking that one for Steven Universe would be even wilder (and we know Rebecca Sugar actually had one, written out on paper, with a ton of color-coding). But also this summary of Adora's first convo with Light Hope is WILD because IT'S NOT WRONG (hardcore spoilers ahoy? but also if that's an issue you shouldn't be reading these posts lol):

Adora encounters Light Hope and is given the quest to "balance the planet". Light Hope attempts to isolate Adora from her friends my saying that balancing the planet requires her to let go of her attachments to her friends. This bears remarkable similarity to cult-psychology isolation tactics. It is especially worrying once you know that Light Hope is a Paperclip Maximizer and "Balance the Planet" is a euphemism for "rebuild and rearm the Weapon of Universal Genocide".

And if you've never heard of "paperclip maximizers" the wikipedia page about them is awesome but also I once wrote a post about the gems from Steven Universe also being paperclip maximizers. Here's a quote from the wikipedia page:

Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans. (Nick Bostrom, “Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence”, 2003)

[sometipsygnostalgic]

How do you interpret Adora's "I just want to be the hero she deserves" about Glimmer?

If Catra's series-wide struggle is learning to look out for others and let go of being the Villain, Adora's is learning to look out for herself and let go of being the Hero.

When Angella dies, she says "take care of each other". Adora, god bless, interprets it as "take care of Glimmer". She believes Angella's final dying wish was for her to do everything she could to look after Glimmer, not understanding that Angella wanted this to be reciprocal, and sacrificed herself to protect Adora, NOT She-Ra.

Adora thinks that she has to work extra hard to be worth the Queen's sacrifice. She has to become Glimmer's white knight, her champion. And Adora's attitude not only pushes against Glimmer's insecurities, making her feel weak, lonely and inadequate, it leaves Adora's own vulnerabilities wide open for Glimmer to lash out on!

Glimmer's kind of a spoilt brat. She really does care about her friends and she has deep insecurities, but everything about her is someone who grew up in privilege and has little understanding of other people's lives. Thus, she thinks she has to work harder than everyone else to defeat the Horde, but she also thinks she Deserves a lot of things too. Like the power that comes with responsibility, or respect from her friends and family, things other characters - like Adora and the Horde - DON'T think they can have.

So when she sees Adora trying her hardest to protect her and keep her out of battle, she doesn't think "Adora's working way too hard for my sake and I should go be her friend", she's thinking, "Adora's gotten high on being the mighty She-Ra and she and Bow keep abandoning me for glory missions while I'm isolating myself in the castle". Glimmer even starts laughing at Adora, with someone who she had previously sided 100% against, Adora's abuser, to validate her own feelings.

Glimmer's thoughts on Shadow Weaver are dynamic, interesting, and fucked up. You can really tell with this character that Glimmer has a completely black and white view on her enemies. Either Shadow Weaver is a manipulative evil horde mother playing mind games on Adora and needs to be kept far away from her, or Shadow Weaver "has done nothing wrong" and is giving her the power and validation she so desperately craves after her mother passed away. Glimmer's headstrong black and white views make her easy bait for Shadow Weaver to turn against Adora and use for power. But Shadow Weaver was walking into a trap - she underestimated bow headstrong Glimmer really is, and how much her manipulation had emboldened her, and got rejected as soon as she suggested Glimmer needed Adora.

Adora sees Glimmer turning against herself in favour of Shadow Weaver, and is increasingly uncomfortable with her position in the Alliance. Adora had already been taught by SW and Light Hope that her worth as a person was tied to how long she could go on without letting them down, and very quickly, Glimmer was starting to make their friendship feel conditional, and blame her for things that were not her fault.

When Glimmer blames Adora for her mother's death, it's everything Adora feared - the confirmation of her own deepest self doubts. She breaks down and refuses to talk to Glimmer, deciding that friendship is out of the cards, and her only worth to her is as She-Ra.

Of course, when she finds out from Mara that the whole She-Ra thing was a scam, that Light Hope set her up and she's destined to be a weapon, not a saviour of the planet? It gives Adora an existential crisis, but also gives her an incredibly significant objective more important than anything else - disable the Heart of Etheria and make sure nobody can use it. Bow, watching Mara's final recordings by her side, takes this on too.

Glimmer's actions in "Fractures" force Adora and Bow against the wall. They have been told someone from the Horde that they know is on Beast Island, a place where nobody comes back. If they rescue her, she has the best chance of being able to disable the Heart of Etheria.

Glimmer thinks the Heart can be used as a weapon against the Horde. She really wants the Horde to suffer, and she is resentful at Entrapta for joining them, and absolutely does not want a rescue mission to take place. It's not because of Bow and Adora's safety, or she could have stopped them - it's because the entire mission undermines both her dehumanising of the enemy Horde and her ability to fight back against them.

But for Bow and Adora, it's not a matter of politics and war, it's about doing the right thing. First of all, unlike Glimmer, they still believed in Entrapta as their friend, and were absolutely never going to postpone her rescue. Secondly, they needed to do whatever they could to stop the Heart of Etheria as per Adora's promise to Mara.

So these factors override Adora's principles of being the perfect Champion for Glimmer - she is forced to choose between what Glimmer thinks is practical and what she thinks is right. And Adora has already turned on a friend she made a promise to before, to do the right thing.

When they're on Beast Island, Adora becomes plagued by doubts about leaving Glimmer and fucking up her role as Champion. She loses the ability to transform as She-Ra, with everything about her destiny no longer making sense. She almost succumbs to the signal.

But Adora realises, at this lowest point, that she took Angella's final words completely wrong - that it's not her duty to protect Glimmer, that all Angella wanted was for them both to be happy, and that they need each other as friends, not as She-Ra and Queen Glimmer. This clarity of her place gives Adora the confidence to power through Beast Island, and her high on being able to choose her own path allows her to break the Sword of Protection later.

Adora struggles further with her destiny in season 5, but her Glimmer-specific issues are put to one side.

Also, big shout out to Bow this season??? Imo season 5 is a better showing for him, but he was supporting Adora through everything Glimmer put her through.

Bow's belief in friendship took a real knock in season 4, but he was able to make the right choices. Not just in leaving Glimmer, his best friend in the world, for Beast Island, but his empathy for what others are going through.

Bow understands that Glimmer needs her friends around, not She-Ra, as much as she may say otherwise. He's able to recognise when Glimmer is manipulating him.

Bow believes completely in Entrapta despite everything she's done and is the first character in the Rebellion to connect with her emotionally, with them both feeling lost over fallen friendships on Beast Island.

Bow understands Adora's tendencies to put others over herself, and reels them in, especially obvious after Glimmer gets kidnapped. He tells her she needs rest and generally looks out for her, empathising with her plight over Mara.

Anyway that's all for this post. There's way more that can be discussed, especially with Glimmer, but here's Adora's arc in season 4.

[catrasredemption-moved]

Abuse TW:

Idk why this person has decided they needed to start an anti Catradora account on Twitter two years after the show ended, buuuuuuuuuut. Let's go through this point by point, shall we?

-Catra makes unreasonable demands of Adora/expects Adora to put everything aside, scratches, shoves, kicks, slaps Adora: grouping all this together because it's when they are literal children. And surprise, children don't always handle emotions well! Sometimes they have too many emotions that they don't know how to regulate and they lash out. Sometimes it happens physically. At that point it's their guardian's job to teach them why that's wrong.

Catra had previously been told that the only reason she was around was because *Adora liked her*. She made the logical conclusion that if Adora didn't like her anymore, Shadow Weaver would throw her out. Let me know how you would react to that at like 6-8 years old. You can't tell me you NEVER physically lashed out at another person when you were kid. Even if it was just shoving them to get them out of the way. Children have tiny bodies full of big emotions. Shit. Happens.

(Full disclosure, yeah, when I was 9 I kicked a boy because he was teasing me and wouldn't leave me along and I was angry. Kids are bastards sometimes.)

"Catra is constantly dissatisfied no matter how much Adora gives" - Uh. When? Thinking through their interactions during the first ep and all the flashbacks, I can't recall one time Catra expressed dissatisfaction.

"You're supposed to be *my* friend."

"I am your friend Catra."

Oh look, Catra expressed her feelings, Adora reassured her, and Catra was happy.

Actually going back to the shoving thing again - they were raised in the Horde, do you expect any of them to have HEALTHY ways of expressing themselves? It's shown multiple times that they invade each other's spaces, push back against each other, etc. as a way of showing affection, especially in the portal, and in season five. And they certainly weren't afraid to get face to face when they were fighting.

Or are we talking about when Catra got angry after Adora was promoted? Because that anger was at SHADOW WEAVER, not Adora. Two seconds earlier she'd been thrilled because ADORA GOT PROMOTED THAT'S AWESOME. Did she express it well? No. But again. Dysfunctional.

Also friendly reminder that in the same scene Adora basically tells Catra it's her own fault Shadow Weaver abuses her ("You are kind of disrespectful"). A+ victim blaming Adora good job.

(it's not Adora's fault she thinks this, it's how she was raised. Noticing a pattern?)

Moving on from their childhood/pre-war.

Catra kidnaps Adora: Yes, she does. Because she'd fallen out of favor with Hordak, Adora was her enemy, and she needed SOMETHING to secure she'd have a safe future in the Horde. Was it right? No. But context is important.

Catra uses weapons on Adora: Yes, in fights, where Adora has a giant sword? It's a war. They're on opposite sides. Unless you're talking about the taser in episode 2. Again, making choices out of fear. Shadow Weaver was going to fry her if she didn't bring Adora back. Good choice? Not by a longshot. But Catra has a well established record of making bad, sometimes self-destructive choices. It's almost like she was raised with the constant threat of death hovering over her head.

Catra attempts to murder Adora multiple times:

.....does she? She leaves Adora hanging on the cliff in the Crystal Palace. Adora straight up told her that the palace only saw Adora as an enemy while Catra was around. Logical conclusion: If Catra left, Adora would be safe

Battle of Bright Moon: She was trying to capture She-Ra, not kill her.

Portal: I could write an entire essay about why the portal was lashing out at the entire world in response to nearly being killed by her abuser who gets to be a good guy now, but tl;dr glorified suicide attempt.

Elberon (4x3): If she wanted Adora dead, she'd be dead. She could have easily turned up the voltage on her trap, but the point wasn't to kill Adora - it was to get Double Trouble into the Rebellion.

Same episode: Adora fights back! It's like they're opposite sides of a war....

(Note that's the last time they see each other until 5x5)

Are her actions during the war *justified*? Of course not, she was on the enemy's side, she did bad things. But you're missing a key part of what makes an abuser: they'll try to frame their abuse as coming from a place of love.

"I'm only doing this because I love you."

"I just love you so much and sometimes I lose control."

Bullshit, etc. At no point does Catra attempt to act like she's doing anything for *Adora's* own good. I can't say emotions are completely removed from the equation, because they're not, but they very firmly view each other as enemies, especially after Promise.

Abuse also implies an unbalanced power dynamic, which there is not. It's not one-sided. It's not black and white the way you want it to be - it's messy and sometimes uncomfortable because they both hurt each other a lot, and neither gets an excuse for it. But simply saying "Catra is abusive" and calling it a day is doing a disservice to the characters and the show.

Anyway, have fun continuing to obsess over something you hate. I'll be over here doing things that bring me joy.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

The densest substance in the universe is the minds of people who rant that Hordak being enslaved and abused by Prime does NOT excuse Hordak's villiany, and then in literally the next paragraph demand for people to forgive Catra's villiany... due to her being enslaved and abused by Hordak.

these people also say the same for glimmer.

"glimmer knew shadow weaver was a manipulator, it's her fault that she got manipulated!" first off, that's not how manipulation works. secondly, catra also knew shadow weaver was a manipulator and she still got manipulated.

the double standards in this fandom is crazy. if you're gonna hold hordak accountable for his actions, which you should, you should be doing the same for catra. you can't pick and choose.

[crypticpatterns]

Catra

Ohh this will be fun!! Sorry if there's overlap with Adora, I'm going to assume the people reading this haven't seen my Adora post yet and I talked about Catra a fair bit there.

First Impression

As part of a game with my siblings and cousins we actually watched the season one finale of She Ra first. We decided to choose a random show on Netflix and watch the last episode and try to figure out what was going on in the chaos. As such, my first impression of Catra is based on the season one finale with literally zero context.

First of all, I assumed Catra had defected from the Rebellion, when in fact Adora was the defector.

I immediately picked up on the undertones between Catra and Adora's fighting--these two know each other, used to be very close...and does Catra like Adora? Hmm.

I immediately knew I'd love Catra because I always love the sympathetic villains, and the Catra/Adora dynamic hooked me. I initially theorized Catra was the Horde's second-in-command like Darth Vader is to the Emperor, when funnily enough she doesn't get promoted to that position until the very end of that episode.

Impression Now

I love her!! She's definitely my favorite She-Ra character. She's a baby girl who deserved SO MUCH BETTER and I'm so proud of her for improving and getting better. Her arc through the show is just *chef's kiss* and we stan that redemption arc. Babyyyy

Favorite Moment

Chipped!Catra gives me major gay panic so definitely that, plus it's just...such a good scene oh my gosh. Save the Cat is so good, on my recent rewatch I literally watched it twice in a row and only continued on because I wanted to get to the finale.

And of course her speech at the end to Adora. We stan the character growth. It makes me want to cry every single time.

Idea For A Story

I'm sure many of these already exist, but Adora and Catra raising Finn and learning how to be moms to their kid and not continue the cycle of abuse. (If you know of good fics like this feel free to hit me up.)

A fic going into more detail about Melog's home planet would be pretty cool too.

Unpopular Opinion

Catra's redemption arc was perfect, actually? I dunno how "unpopular" that is. I suppose more specifically, Zuko and Catra's redemption arcs shouldn't be compared as much as they are because they are different characters serving different roles in the narrative with different relationships to the heroes. Catra used to be best friends with Adora while Zuko has no friendships with Team Avatar. Zuko knows his own worth by the time he joins Team Avatar while Catra doesn't. They're just way too different to compare one to one, but the arc we got serve the characters they correspond to perfectly.

Favorite Relationship

Catradora, but since I already went into that in my Adora post, I'll get into my second-favorite relationship -- Catra and Scorpia.

Catra and Scorpia have a very dysfunctional relationship because Catra is unable to show or accept love thanks to her trauma, and there are only brief moments where she reciprocates Scorpia's kindness. To see them finally bond in the Crimson Waste only for Catra to immediately backtrack once she finds out Shadow Weaver left her for Adora is heartwrenching because Scorpia deserves so much better and we only want what's best for her, but we also feel bad for Catra despite the terrible things she does.

When Scorpia finally leaves (good for her!) it's heartbreaking to see Catra's reaction to her last friend leaving her. It's Catra's fault, but we know that Scorpia was all she had left in the world and to lose her makes her feel all the more worthless and spiral deeper into despair and self-destruction.

I would have liked to see a proper reunion between these two, preferably one where they don't explicitly reconcile immediately, but I understand the show had a LOT to juggle in the final season and Scorpia was chipped for the majority of the second half, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for that.

Favorite Headcanon

Any headcanon that incorporates some aspect of Catra being a cat is S-tier content. For example, her coming when Adora says pspspsps.

Send me a character (spop or otherwise) and I'll tell you what I think of them! Anon asks are open <3

[etheriadearie]

I'm still reading you latest awesome essay but I wanna point out before I forget in the process: Shadow Weaver as you said used Adora as a puppet against Catra, and then almost immediately Light Hope does the same by using fighting simulations that are designed to make She-Ra comfortable into killing Catra and "letting go"

:: Adora and the darkness within-

Hey! Thanks so much for the kind review! And thanks for bringing this up, because you're exactly right. It not so cute like it seems- (Adora becomes completely useless in s2ep1 the second Catra shows up ☺️- turning her sword into a coffee mug and then a flute!? lol!!). That said, the meaning behind Adora's training is indeed something that's actually very scary to watch...

But it couldn't possibly be like that, right? After all, Adora wouldn't really do it, because when she puts her sword to Catra's throat in White Out, Catra then flirtatiously teases her...

.. Sadly, that's not the end of this, Adora does internalize to this brutal conditioning after all. (spoiler warn ⚠️) Adora thinks of herself as a solider, and does continue drilling hard on the idea of killing Catra. And, she almost does so- if you don't know to what I'm referring, it has to do with the one other 100% canon SPOP source material- I'll cover it below in the spoiler section.

Just... know that Adora really does internalize this concept-that she must kill her best friend as part of her 'destiny' (more later.)

It's this belief in 'destiny' by which Light Hope is still able to continue to manipulate Adora, even after she refuses to leave her friends behind, to "let go". Destiny is a concept that's so important to Adora's perception of self value that Light Hope uses it against her, towards the goal of her evil purposes, and of getting Adora to "let go." If Light Hope can get Adora to kill Catra, that's a whole lot of 'letting go' all at once. It would have broken Adora, she never would have recovered. It's so terrifying.

Where does this belief that Adora must do anything to fulfill 'destiny' come from, why is she so concerned with it that she stops thinking any further? Why must it be Adora's burden to do this horrible thing ?

For instance, we know Adora does show wisdom by refusing to leave her friends behind- she's not willing to give in to Light Hope's idea that she should seclude herself in the woods. Adora knows that something isn't right with Light Hope. And yet, isn't Catra also Adora's friend- one which she hurtfully turned against to enact a false destiny, much like how she played favorite to their abuser in the Horde, and whom Adora is now plotting to kill ?

What's really going on is something that's very ugly- despite the cute overtones to lighten the mood. Light Hope is using Adora's sense of duty against her to get her to potentially do something that's very hurtful to herself, and to the person who loves her most. What's so wrong with Adora's 'destiny', that she's got to kill someone she loves? How can that be right, is the only answer for this that war is terrible, or is the war on Etheria even what we think it is, or is it something different? And, is Adora killing Catra for it the right choice ?

Why- that's the big question. Why is it Adora's, or She-ra's, job to save the Princesses from the Horde? Why does Angella feel the need to make this Adora's burden? Could the Rebellion really not have done it themselves, or did they just give up out of grief? As Catra says in s5ep9: "Why does it have to be Adora?"

Like Catra says in s5- this is exactly right: all throughout SPOP, nothing about Adora's situation is right, or fair... it never was. Everyone is just forcing their burdens on her... and she ends up a desperately anxious person because of it.

And it's all a lie, a set up to make Adora fail- just like Mara did.

Like Mara, Adora was "never meant to succeed. They made a plan for" (..her) -it's history, all over again, and everything Adora thinks she's doing for 'destiny' and to end the war is part of this lie. That includes the 'destiny' as Angella describes it for her: it's just another likely set up: "I know the legend of warrior of the one the First Ones called She-ra, they said she would return to us in the hour of our greatest need to bring balance to Etheria". How, exactly ? By winning the war at any cost ?

This is also almost certainly a myth started by the First Ones to prepare the next She-ra for failure, as part of their plan to use the weapon. A deception purposefully implanted within cultural beliefs, meant to further enable their betrayals- Light Hope and the First Ones never had any intention of bringing balance to Etheria, they only wish to use the weapon. And again, why is it Adora's job to save the rebellion from the Horde???

Angella and the rebellion gave up on that all on their own, back when Adora was just a small child. Also... keep in mind that Shadow Weaver was allowed to run to the horde, where there was no accountability for her crimes and where she had complete control over little Adora and Catra, which she used to abuse the heck out of them. Considering how the Princesses gave up trying to fight the Horde when Adora was but a small, defenseless child, why is this war supposedly Adora's burden?? There's nothing fair about it.

We see Adora's legitimate feelings of pain, anger, desperation, and sorrow from how she's been forced into her position- everyone is hurting her with their burdens. It puts Adora in a constant state of anxiety, and her feelings of frustration and anger at this is well deserved.

And yet... what's so interesting about Adora's situation is that her anger towards Catra is perhaps the least deserved: even though Catra is fighting against her in a war which is wrong. Adora might feel mad at Catra for refusing to follow her as she enacts her beliefs in this false 'destiny', and Catra instead makes doing so harder for Adora by fighting back against her, and yet, Adora's not even doing the right thing in the first place as her entire destiny is a lie to use her as a weapon. Catra simply refuses to just accept her friend as this person who just turns on people who mean something to her, supposing evil upon them all while making no effort to understand them any deeper. Adora really is doing the wrong thing by enabling Light Hope's evil... and she can't even see it...

Well... in short, what Angella told Adora about her 'destiny' seemed to make sense- and so she went with it. It's not so much that Adora is naive as that they all are- Angella is naively playing into the First Ones deceptions, too. Adora is supposedly there to "bring balance" through 'destiny' by saving them from the Horde. So, for 'destiny', she assumes that she must be willing to do whatever she has to win that war- she has to hurt Catra...

Deception, and more deception- what even is the war on Etheria ? Where does Hordak even come from, other than Light Hope purposely crashing him on Etheria to set a conflict? It's a cruel war that likely started with the First Ones purposely bringing Hordak to Etheria, and it's not Adora's fault that the rebellion couldn't deal with Hordak- she was a small child when the rebellion fell apart. And, Adora's agreeing to win this war at any cost is a bridge too far... if she were to kill Catra, the damage to her own psyche... it would be beyond comprehension. When we see her talking to Light Hope in s2ep1, we finally get to see how Adora is all kinds of hurt by Catra's refusal of her, she's all broken up inside: "she's in my head". Catra wasn't supposed to be Adora's enemy: Adora couldn't realize this, and she made her one by essentially giving in to the prejudiced views of the rebellion.

Long story short, the war isn't quite what we think it is. Instead- who, really, are She-ra's greatest enemies? Next to Horde Prime and the First Ones, Hordak hardly even measures...

Adora's biggest enemy, as She-ra, is, in fact, the First Ones: and we know that because of Mara. We know Horde Prime must have existed as a threat in Mara's time, yet Mara considered her own people, and the weapon which they created, to be so much greater an enemy that she gave up everything to stop them. And just like Mara, what the First Ones want to do to Adora is so evil it outweighs anything having to do with the war on Etheria- the entire planet is at stake if Adora doesn't wake up to the reality of how the First Ones intend to use her for their evil...

What the First Ones did was always the original betrayal..

... this original betrayal is the reason for everything to do with Adora's situation- it's why she becomes She-ra, but also why she does ends up in Shadow Weaver's care, who wanted to use Adora's power for her own benefit and abused her because of it. It's all to do with the original betrayal of the First Ones by bringing her to Etheria to be part of their weapon...

But, Adora is a soldier, she's been trained to expect violence as a necessity of solving problems her entire life, and so she has a really hard time realizing that the entire concept of this belief is wrong and that she's being manipulated. Light Hope uses her belief in 'destiny' and false belief in duty before all else, including love, to control her- as a soldier, Adora does what she told (within reason) because what Light Hope tells her is what she expects to hear. Light Hope tells her that killing Catra will help end this war and fulfill her 'destiny', so she drills the moment of killing Catra to do it. But what hurtful act is too much, what price is too high, what cost to her own morality is too dark? How terrifying it would be for Adora if she actually did kill Catra...

So, here's the warn for LotFP spoilers 🚨🚨 -more good discussion is yet to come- and I promise not to spoil anything more than necessary for you folks-

💞🏳️‍🌈🌹

(..If you really don't want spoilers, now's your chance)

So... Adora does actually make the decision to try to kill Catra.

In LotFP, it's obvious that Adora had continued drilling the idea of killing Catra, over and over, with Light Hope following White Out. Because- like in White Out- Adora gets a chance to hit Catra- and this time she doesn't hesitate.

Adora consciously attempts to kill Catra. Keep in mind that Adora still had no idea how to heal at that point. Why does Adora try to do that, and what makes her believe she has to do it?

(*p.s- I won't go over how LotFP happens after s2ep5, but if you've been wondering when it took place- yup)

The rebellion may talk a cute game around being more 'humane' with war... but, that's mostly Bow. When it comes to it, both Glimmer and Adora at times choose actions that cross the line into the downright sinister to end the war- no act is too dark for them. Adora comes terrifyingly close to killing Catra because of it...

Luckily for Catra, in the moment of Adora's brutal confusion over her being conditioned to take Catra's life, Catra finally has someone in her life that will take care of her, and Scorpia steps in to protect Catra.

Scorpia then rightly tells Adora off for her continued, out of control, bloodlust towards Catra, willing to murder her friend for what turns out to be an evil destiny, anyways. Catra was never planning to take things that far- she only tries to bring Adora low, or capture her... and to force Adora to confront how naive she is. Why should Adora bear such a burden of the war, at such potential emotional cost to herself and to Catra's life?

The result is that Adora ends up suitably chastised for her actions in LotFP, and you can start to see a change in her behavior following it in s3ep3-ep6: she's realized she can't just kill Catra. She also begins to realize that Light Hope has been manipulating her, and that she's been living a lie.

Unfortunately, Adora's actions before this realization comes at a cost: SPOP is very clear about consequences: it leaves Catra desperately afraid after seeing the love of her life constantly trying to kill her. Each time Adora sees Catra following Promise, 3 times in total, she ends up trying to kill her- unwittingly during the Battle of Brightmoon, possessed during White Out, and then as a conscious decision in LotFP. Is that acceptable behavior ?

This cruel behavior Adora so hurtfully has towards Catra for false destiny sets up Catra's biggest mistake and her following mental break down:

Catra desperately looks elsewhere for any kind of support- the person she loves wants to kill her... and Hordak is being hurtful and threatening her. So, Catra decides to try to get Shadow Weaver to help her. After all, why not- nobody can be THAT evil, right??? She must have SOME humanity...

That's a mistake, as Shadow Weaver is all bad, and all that Catra gets for trusting her is more horrible emotional wounds and so much more damage that by the time Adora sees Catra in s3ep3, she's one bad hit from totally losing her mind. And the hit comes... and she does... and Adora simply cannot reach Catra through her grief and her anger.

Even though Adora changes her behavior towards Catra in s3ep3-ep6- showing deference for her past mistakes, love for Catra, humility, Catra is too far gone to hear it- she only sees protecting herself from further harm at any cost- that includes pulling the switch and winning the war. It was how she was going to finally be safe...

Everything proceeds to fall apart, so much chaos ensues. One thing that's so scary about Adora's behavior is that it shows she was fighting while having no idea where her line was: what action was too much, too sinister, in service of her 'destiny'? She didn't really understand her own feelings, her own darkness.... and if Adora had taken Catra's life... it's real scary to think about. Fighting without knowing your own moral beliefs and convictions is always scary, it was scary to see for both Adora and Catra.

And so, by the time Portal happens... there's not much Adora can do for Catra. She's too hurt to hear Adora's pleas of love. All she can really do is ask Catra to be better, to heal herself. As Adora says:

"You made your choice, now live with it!*

*WOMP*

She's right, Catra can't live with herself- she's been corrupted by her grief and her fear- and in s4 we see as Catra's anger begins to break down into something else.

Catra is stuck in a downward spiral, and at least Adora is always trying to be better, even if she didn't know what that really is. Can we say the same about Catra? No not really.

One last appreciation-

Scorpia is a good, smart, interpersonal person, she realizes Catra's needs, she protects her like no one else ever has, including Adora. Yeah, Catra doesn't really deserve her, (also- Scorpia was always Catra's best source of healthy emotional support, something Catra should have worked harder at accepting), but it's really good for people like Catra to see someone show care for them, besides. And, Scorpia also stops Adora from doing something she herself never would have recovered from.

Hooray for Scorpia! Hooray!! Without her, no kiss, no saving the universe. Hooray!! for Scorpia!! She's the best- 🖤♥️🤍

Happy 1 year anniversary to Catradora kiss!! 🎉🏳️‍🌈 💞🎉🥰

Everything in SPOP is always a team effort. Scorpia deserves Adora's gratitude, after all, Scorpia saved Catra from Adora's own hurtful confusion. How scary it is that Adora came so close to taking the life of her future lover... 😥

Thanks as always for a like or a ✨✨✨rebloggg✨✨✨ and let me know if you have questions or concerns! I will gladly answer them-

With Love,

~EtheriaDearie

::Here's a link to the original post to which this refers- all links are on tumblr

🥰 Got time for one more fast and fun read about Catradora love to help the author out? Check on this quick read-💞🏳️‍🌈

LotFP = Legend of the Fire Princess

Here's the total list of more reading if you'd like to read more 🙂 -

[mimdecisive]

How do you feel about Glimmer? There are some who hate her but some who love her. What do you think?

My feelings about Glimmer are complicated, and my problems with her lie solely with the writers. I do think a lot of other SPOP critics cut her a lot of slack, and I have a post I haven't finished yet about the double standards of Catra VS Glimmer. But in short, S4-S5 Glimmer is the worst kind of Glimmer. S1 Glimmer is the best kind of Glimmer. This got long.

In particular, how she treated Adora, because nothing Adora did was to intentionally hurt Glimmer, but Glimmer intentionally hurt her. Glimmer treated her the way Shadow Weaver treated Adora, using her as a tool that has to be perfect, because if she's not, everything is her fault.

She used her the way Adora's insecurities use her. I actually wrote down that exchange, and that isn't even including the "Shadow Weaver's favourite' line.

You think you can just transform into She-Ra and hit things with your sword, and it will fix everything. Well, guess what? It's not working / Why are you blaming this all on me? It is not my fault that Salineas fell, the Horde manipulated all of us.

She-Ra was supposed to save us. But the rebellion's in a worse place than ever since YOU showed up! / I'm trying my best. Why can't you see that?

Well, maybe your best isn't good enough! If it was, my mother would still be here!

Glimmer regrets what she said, only after Adora starts crying. This isn't even including how in the episode before this, Glimmer laughed at Adora's trauma (She's always been paranoid like this) and it was revealed Glimmer let Adora's abuser walk free without even telling her, and used her as bait despite the fact it reinforced the idea that Adora was only worth what she could give and it was fine to throw her into danger.

And she didn't listen to Adora about the Heart of Etheria, something that Mara died for.

Bright Moon was supposed to be Adora's home, she was supposed to feel safe there. Glimmer took that away from her, and refused to accept that they were a team and had to trust each other, rather than everyone blindly trusting Glimmer.

And that's a flaw of Glimmer's! That's something built up in S1 with her 'Trust me' lines. But it's only a flaw if it's actually acknowledged and she grows from it, but she did the opposite of growth.

And then in S5 she gives Adora a little 'I'm sorry for everything' and a couple of tears, and I'm supposed to believe the trust she broke is restored? She actually chose Shadow Weaver over Adora.

And it wasn't for a lack of options! The only reason she talked to SW about her problems is because SW was actively approaching her in an attempt to manipulate her. She could have written a letter to Castaspella, or tried to talk to Adora and Bow. She didn't, because she's stubborn.

And her speech to Micah in S5? "My mother raised me to be brave" is a blatant lie and the fact that's what the writers came up with for her BIG moment? We were robbed.

Glimmer was not raised to be brave, Glimmer was raised to be safe. That's all Angella wanted, was to keep Glimmer safe, to mold her into someone who could be more reasonable and who wouldn't throw herself into danger at every moment.

She's stubborn, and brave, and she gets both of those qualities from Micah and Angella actively tried to mold those qualities out of Glimmer, which she admits to in S1.

Combined with her forced romance in S5 which I really don't like, because their platonic relationship was really important to me and I felt betrayed, S4-S5 Glimmer really didn't do her justice.

The conclusion: I think Glimmer is a good character and I like her, I really do, I just think the writers didn't give her what she deserved in S4-S5. I had to write a fix-it after the show ended about her and Adora's fractured friendship.

[nonbinarychaoticstupid]

JUST LEAVE THE PARTY WITH ME (AND NEVER GO HOME)

written for the @sherabigbang, with INCREDIBLE art (x) by @mcalexburger!!

summary: she doesn't remember exactly how they stopped talking. maybe it happened when catra moved in with her friend, scorpia, after finishing school. maybe it happened four years before, and she just didn't see the signs. or maybe it was sudden, and it was her fault. whatever it was, it's been carefully erased from her memory, piece by piece. and it hurts, because she hates not knowing. she hates missing catra. she hates this feeling more than she can ever express. maybe it happened after the kiss. or several years after they fall apart, a broken and exhausted adora shows up on catra's doorstep at 4 in the morning. and now they've got to fix what they broke.

read it here!

word count: 23862 warnings: descriptions + discussions of abuse, trauma, homophobia, and alcohol misuse. as you can imagine, shadow weaver is an asshole.

[fan-dot]

Adora’s Abuse

I cannot stand how people minimize Adora’s abuse.

The form of abuse Adora suffered is insidious. It’s the kind that if you attempted to lay it all out, it doesn’t sound all that awful for most people. After all, she was being praised! She was the preferred child. She was the golden child. 

The thing is, the abuse she faced is just as damaging and traumatizing as a ‘classic’ examples of abuse.  

A Brief and Incomplete Breakdown

The primary form of abuse Adora faced (as far as we know) was emotional abuse. Shadow Weaver manipulated, terrorized, and traumatized her in an attempt to mold her into a weapon that she could use.

Adora’s Need For Control

Adora was placed on a pedestal. If she acted out, the people under her would be punished for her misbehavior. This bred a guilt complex in her- if bad things happened, it was her fault. She had to be good, whatever that meant to her in that moment, because if she was bad or misbehaved or wasn’t good enough, others were punished in her place. 

On top of that, others around her were taught to look up to her. She couldn’t make mistakes because not only would she be letting Shadow Weaver down (and potentially getting her friends and squad mates hurt- or worse) but she would be letting everyone else down. And even further, if she messed up enough she could be the one getting hurt or tossed aside. Children need the love and affection of their caregivers. Potentially losing Shadow Weaver’s affection and attention could be terrifying for Adora. 

But it wasn’t just Adora herself that had to behave well to avoid Shadow Weaver’s ire- it was the people around her. Shadow Weaver made Adora responsible for the behavior of others from a young age. When Catra misbehaved, messed up, or didn’t live up to Shadow Weaver’s expectations, Adora was blamed for it and Catra hurt- physically and emotionally. This again deepened Adora’s guilt complex. Now, other people’s behavior was her fault as well because Adora should have worked harder to make sure that her people behaved and did well. She should have checked in on them, pushed them harder, done more, anything- it’s her fault that they got in trouble. She needs to fix things.  Everything has to be perfect because if it’s not, that’s dangerous. People are going to get hurt.  

Adora is constantly on alert and seems to operate from a place of fear and anxiety a lot of the time. She needs to be the best, because if she isn’t, people are going to get hurt and she’s going to lose the people she cares about. She needs to do x  because if she doesn’t, bad things will happen. If she isn’t perfect, if she’s not good, if she doesn’t fix things, if she, if she, if she-

The Effects of Witnessing Physical Abuse

We haven’t seen Shadow Weaver explicitly strike Adora yet as a child in the show. Even if she has, however, just witnessing how Shadow Weaver tormented Catra would leave scars. Children growing up in households where one parent is physically abused become fearful and anxious and hypervigiliant. Even if they are not being hurt directly, they have to watch someone they care about be hurt by someone else they care about. 

There is a constant fear that the abuser could turn on them. Self-blame becomes a huge specter- if they had stepped in, if they hadn’t upset the abuser, if they had said something, if they were better, if they were good, would the abuser not hurt the other person anymore? Why am I not getting hurt? What did the victim do wrong? Sometimes the witness of the abuse can get angry at the victim for upsetting the abuser. 

Adora grew up in an unstable, dangerous environment where as far as she knew, she could be hurt as badly as the others around her in a moment’s notice.  She blames herself for a lot of what happened- after all, “if I was good, if I was better, maybe Shadow Weaver won’t hurt Catra.” She puts herself in danger to protect Catra, the same way a child might try to intervene if a parent or sibling were being  abused. 

Despite us never seeing Shadow Weaver hurt Adora while she was in her ‘care’, we still see Adora flinch from her and anxiety when she touches her. She tracks Shadow Weaver’s hands and squeezes her eyes shut when she pats her head, as if expecting a blow. That alone is sign that she fears violence from Shadow Weaver, whether or not she ever physically abused Adora as well. 

Physical Abuse

The only physical abuse we have witnessed so far in the series comes from the episode where Shadow Weaver attempts to mind-wipe Adora. 

Adora is in pain at the hands of the person who raised her. 

Though we haven’t seen much evidence for physical abuse, I think it’s possible. Adora was raised to be a soldier and I wouldn’t be surprised if she faced a lot of direct or indirect physical violence as a result. A rare strike or electric shock could do a lot for Shadow Weaver’s attempts to keep her ‘in line��. A ‘I hate that you’re making me do this’ could be one way Shadow Weaver would use it to manipulate her.

After all, Adora is terrified of her touch. It could be from witnessing Catra’s abuse, but there is potential that Catra wasn’t the only one who faced physical abuse, even if she was the primary target.

Beyond that though, there is a form of physical abuse that is a bit fuzzy on whether it is emotional or physical abuse in nature that both Adora and Catra experience in spades.

Body blocking.

Shadow Weaver is always looming over Adora and Catra. She exerts her power over them and nonverbally threatens them. She traps them into rooms and into her space and takes away their power. 

Adora’s Weak Concept of Self

Like many abuse survivors, Adora has a weak sense of self. This is only compounded upon by her being raised to be a soldier. The failures and successes of herself and the other cadets were pooled together as a group and attributed to the leader- Adora. Adora’s successes then were attributed to Shadow Weaver, and so on and so forth. Adora’s sense of self was eroded away through attaching her sense of self worth to what she could do for other people and making people happy with her. 

Her identity is completely wrapped up in being a leader, being a weapon, and being responsible for others. She needs to be perfect or what else is she? Adora is put in charge of Catra after seeing her get shoved around and frozen, cementing that need for perfection in her. Others suffering and success rely on her, making up a key part of her identity. 

It takes seeing first hand the horrors of the Horde for her to change sides because Adora wrapped up so much of her self-worth and self-identity in being  Shadow Weaver’s ace. It takes until then for her to start to break through Shadow Weaver’s manipulation. Catra knew that and could recognize on some level what Shadow Weaver was doing to the both of them- after all, she faced the overt abuse, saw how differently (and negatively) she was treated from others. Adora could not, especially with Shadow Weaver beating into her head a lack of self-identity. 

Becoming She-Ra, as much as it was her idealism and innate sense of justice, was a way of clinging to a new external identity after her old one was shattered. She sees the sword as her identity, her worth tied to how good a weapon she can be for the Princesses now instead of the Horde. When it shatters, so does her sense of self and purpose. 

Overt Emotional Abuse

When Adora does go against Shadow Weaver, without Catra around anymore to be a scapegoat, there is a reversal from covert to overt emotional abuse  and manipulation being the primary tactic.

Shadow Weaver attempts to reinforce Adora’s lack of self worth and self concept. Whether explicitly or more subtly, she told Adora over and over and over and over again that she was nothing. That she was worthless if she wasn’t what Shadow Weaver wanted. That she didn’t matter.

All the good things about her? They were conditional on Adora’s obedience.

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Other Side Notes

- Shadow Weaver stalked Adora during that episode where Adora’s trauma and PTSD is on full display (the first Mystacor episode)

- In that same episode, she took Glimmer’s form and said awful, manipulative, and abusive shit to her

- Adora knows Shadow Weaver is willing and capable of killing- and knows that’s a potential consequence for failing or not ‘keeping Catra in line’; that’s a lot to put on a little kid

-  How often did Shadow Weaver go a little too far (on purpose or on accident) and weaponized affection to bring Adora around and make her feel guilty for being upset or upsetting Shadow Weaver?

- When Adora rejects Shadow Weaver’s attempt to manipulate her with affection, Shadow Weaver switches gears to praise. There’s groundwork there, years of conditioning and manipulation that lead to this exchange.

- Adora’s childhood was filled with gaslighting, but that’s a topic for another post

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Shadow Weaver traumatized Adora to the point that she had panic attacks and a breakdown over the thought of her being around her. That alone tells you how much that woman traumatized her. Her abuse is not lesser because it was primarily psychological and covert. That just makes it harder to recognize and harder to heal. Don’t minimize it. 

[lem-cup-rev]

3.1 | The Price of Power

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)

🌸🌸🌸🌸

Oh my gosh, the two Horde scenes in this episode were so fun.

Entrapta is in her BEST form. She’s so focused and opinionated. She constantly flows around the room in such a cool, strange way. She’s so evil. I love her disagreement with Hordak, it’s not even that nuanced but it just felt fitting and engaging. And the way she teased Catra about saving her life? Bookend to Catra seducing her by playing with her hair?

Hordak is still evil and sexy. He’s just a perfect straightforward arch villain. The way Catra backtalks him is just perfect. She’s learned something from the Horde abuse nightmare. I love that she knows she did everything right. This episode feels really in touch with all the themes I’ve been excited about with these characters.

Scorpia… hm… She really hasn’t been landing for me that well, maybe her tone feels kind of inconsistent? She says here that Catra means everything to her, and she clearly means it, but it feels strange to me that we haven’t seen a genuine reciprocated moment of connection between them once. It’s hardly Catra’s fault this woman got obsessed with her.

Meanwhile, Shadow Weaver is just sexy and brilliant and constantly a mom. I love the way she corrects Casta’s spell. She has so much emotional power no matter the situation. Holy shit, what she said to Angella about knowing Glimmer’s screams??

Oh yeah, the good guys were in this episode too, huh?

Oh, they were actually almost all of the episode, huh?

:/

I think there was definitely a helping of last episode’s disorder, just a weird extreme silliness that undercut everything in the story.

When it was serious, things felt sort of messy and unclear. A lot of lore got shared, a lot of feelings got discussed, and I couldn’t follow the threads well enough to feel interested in most of it.

I liked when Adora called out Glimmer and Bow for thinking no other Horde member could be redeemed. I liked when she stormed right to Light Hope to demand answers.

Shadow Weaver is my favorite character. I just find myself wanting her to be victorious in any given scene. I think part of the reason is that she seems completely immune to any tone issues the writing will possess. She’s so languid and dry and laconic that she just won’t absorb any of the overly comical energy or overplayed melodrama.

Anyway. No strikes for Catra today. I wanna go easy on her since she’s about to die.

Catra’s Crimes: 25

Next time: Butch/femme dynamics…!

[johannas-motivational-insults]

“Friendship” in the Horde

Season 4 raised some interesting questions about how people who grew up in the Horde define friendship. Kyle claimed that his squadmates were his friends, despite how we've seen them bully him, and Scorpia admitted she didn’t even know how to be a good friend. We also saw further developments in Catra and Lonnie’s dynamic that have some interesting implications about their bond, both past and present. However, while these themes became more explicit this season, they are hardly new. The Horde worldbuilding is really quite brilliant, as the writers have been laying the foundation for these revelations by showcasing certain patterns since season one.

This got a little lengthy on me, but there was a lot to consider. The lack of healthy emotional expression and relationship modelling is one obvious problem in the Horde, but the hostile environment has also led to some very specific power dynamics and social structures. These structures, while potentially helpful in hostile environments, are maladaptive in terms of fostering healthy relationships. Ultimately, every character who grew up in the Horde is emotionally crippled. (I’m not even going into Adora, an excellent example, because her repression and communication problems are well-documented and I wanted to focus on characters still in this environment.)

Scorpia

Let’s start with Scorpia. Her revelation that she doesn’t understand what friendship is was a big moment for her, but for those of us who have been watching closely, it’s no big surprise. Scorpia was so desperate for a meaningful connection that she latched onto the first person who showed any signs of considering her a friend, ignoring all the red flags indicating that the relationship was not healthy. Actually, she didn’t ignore them so much as not recognize them, because she didn’t even know what a healthy relationship looks like. To her, the fact that Catra invited her to her room and chose her to accompany her on a mission was enough for her to dub them the Superpal Duo.

Of course, we all know how that went for her. She continued to support Catra unconditionally despite the latter’s tendency to use Scorpia as her emotional punching bag. They did settle into a somewhat more reciprocal and caring relationship after Scorpia saved Catra against her orders during 2x05, proving that Catra was more important to her than the mission (even if that wasn’t what Catra thought she wanted). It’s sad when you think about it, because that was probably the first time Catra ever experienced her wellbeing being prioritized above all else.

Unfortunately, the revelation that Shadow Weaver had gone running back to Adora after betraying her triggered a trauma response and made her clam up again, lashing out at Scorpia and shutting her out even though she had done nothing to betray her trust. It took Catra blatantly attacking and insulting Scorpia when she failed to bring back Entrapta’s recordings (and some well timed reality checks from Emily) for Scorpia to realize that Catra was being a bad friend and she couldn’t win her over by being a good friend.

And actually, Scorpia’s confession in 4x10 that she “thought” she was being a good friend to Catra implies that she had since realized that she wasn’t actually being a good friend to Catra either. She knows the scorpions were a loyal people and she ascribes to that ideal, and she has so much love to give and always tries so hard to be positive, but not setting boundaries with people or demanding a measure of basic respect does nothing for them or you. Also, you can’t ignore the fact that Scorpia forced her affections on Catra, inserting herself into Catra’s life in a way that made her uncomfortable, and continued to ignore Catra’s attempts at setting boundaries with her (which is also very disrespectful). While Catra was certainly the aggressor, she was not the only one who failed in this partnership.

Let’s go back for a moment to Scorpia’s earliest indication that Catra might want to be her friend, when she confides in her and enlists her help coming up with and then executing a plan. Being chosen as Catra’s wingman seems to be important here, and perhaps she was wilfully ignoring how she was the only person who could make Catra’s plan work, but being confided in and trusted was huge to her. And since Horde soldiers are so used to being used, they don’t see it as a red flag. Catra actually flat out said Scorpia was the only person she could trust. How could a lonely gay not interpret that as a sign of being special to someone?

The squad

The importance of trust also becomes evident when considering the interactions among the main squad. Loyalty seems to be paramount in the Horde, not just the scorpion kingdom. Adora defecting to the Rebellion and leaving her squad behind was seen as a huge betrayal, and not just by Catra. Did anyone else want to cry when Lonnie struck back at Adora with “we were your friends” in 1x09? Lonnie was deeply hurt by Adora’s abandonment, feeding into her disillusionment with the Horde. Similarly, when Double Trouble revealed they had double-crossed Catra, her devastated reaction was not that her plans were ruined, but that they had betrayed her. That no doubt was also related to her previous betrayals, but also serves to highlight the importance of loyalty in their subculture.

While all the Horde characters were interesting to watch this season when it came to the themes of friendship, the arc was most pronounced in Lonnie. As I’ve mentioned previously, Scorpia had a short arc over one episode where her rosy worldview was destroyed, causing her to leave (much like Adora), while Lonnie was already a cynic who was aware of the Horde’s imperfections and had to go through more extreme hardships to detach from this unhappy but familiar environment (much like Catra, we hope).

Though she and the boys didn’t leave the Horde until the finale, her disillusionment was already evident in her first episode this season. After Catra berated them for something that wasn’t their fault and demanded they risk their lives to fix it (big Hordak energy), she had her first big revelation: “Catra doesn’t care about us, Adora left us. Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless. It’s everyone for themselves.” In the next episode, she was frustrated by Scorpia’s naïve enthusiasm and trust in Catra, but it took a big blow up between her and Catra for her to finally decide she was done with her, done with the Horde in general.

Kyle represents a sort of middle ground between Lonnie and Scorpia in terms of outlook. He was not treated well in the Horde, but still believed in the ideals of loyalty and squad unity. He wanted to believe Catra had sent them out on a mission into the Whispering Woods because she trusted them and wanted it to be a team-building exercise. His take on it was: “She may be mean, but we’ve always had each other’s backs. Ever since we were kids.” He saw the squad as his family, including Catra (and previously Adora). It took Catra baring her claws and threatening to attack Lonnie outside of a battle sim for him to lose faith in her.

Bullying, the pecking order, and squad unity

As is clear by this point, the Horde defections this season were driven by Catra mistreating the others, but we can’t lose sight of how mistreatment is a fact of daily life in the Horde. And as I mentioned above with Lonnie, it’s those who were most aware of and desensitized to the mistreatment who had the hardest time naming it and leaving the toxic environment. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, call it the sunk cost fallacy, but either way once you’ve submitted to a system that dehumanizes you, it’s hard to admit that that system is wrong and leave it for a better life. Scorpia and Adora grew up somewhat privileged in the Horde in that they were destined for greatness, so they were never abused overtly and they had a level of protection from power-hungry cadets looking to claw their way to the top of the heap. They were already at the top and couldn’t be taken down, so they didn’t have to bully or be bullied.

The importance of pecking order is much more evident when considering people like Kyle, Catra, and Lonnie. Within their squad, Kyle is obviously the omega of the gang (get your heads out of the gutter, that is not what I mean), the one who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong and is constantly getting picked on. Lonnie shits on him, Catra shits on him, and even Rogelio gives him shit and goes along with the blame game. Despite all this, Kyle considers them his friends, his family.

This starts to make sense when you consider it in terms of intra vs. extra squad relations. Maybe the squad didn’t show Kyle any respect or treat him with kindness, but they did protect him in battle sims (sometimes lol) and rescue him from the spore storm. You also kind of get the impression that although they bullied him and asserted their dominance on the regs, they would protect him if other people tried to hurt him. You might say he’s the pet of the gang – he has no power within the structure and it may not be pleasant, but the structure still offers advantages. Having allies was still good for him even if he was at the bottom of the pecking order within the alliance.

Through a sociology lens, you might say the squad (and the Horde in general, given it’s a military society) follows the stereotypical male model of friend groups with clear pecking orders that everyone buys into (with exceptions for blatant power struggles), as opposed to the stereotypical female model that appears less hostile and more cooperative outwardly but involves a lot of underhanded infighting. (Obviously those are broad generalizations and it can be argued how much of it is nature vs. nurture, but they are observable patterns that boys and girls are socialized into in many human societies.) This ties in interestingly to @jaelav3​‘s observations about masculinity equating to strength and femininity equating to power in the Horde (a meta she really needs to write, because it’s brilliant). The hostility of the Horde forces soldiers into these rigid pecking orders in order to find protection in a dangerous place. When everyone knows and accepts their role, it is easier for the squad to function in a unified manner and protect each other, even if it’s at the cost of their mental and emotional health.

Now, when not everybody buys into the pecking order or it’s ambiguous, and/or if there’s a sudden power vacuum, that’s when things get interesting…

Catra and Lonnie, the perfect case study

Catra also suffered a lot of bullying and abuse in the Horde, but in a very different way than Kyle. She was in a unique and kind of contradictory position where she was somewhat protected by her close friendship with Adora, but she was also Shadow Weaver’s favourite chew toy and everyone knew it, which made her a target as well. If Shadow Weaver abused her, she wasn’t going to care if the other cadets abused her as well. Catra’s defensive body language and general distrustfulness and hostility gives the impression that she was bullied behind Adora’s back and Shadow Weaver turned a blind eye, perhaps even encouraged it.

This was all illustrated in 1x03, when Catra and Lonnie butted heads and Catra was forced to back down when two other cadets backed up Lonnie, then Lonnie told her to watch it because Adora wasn’t around to protect her anymore. That one line alone told so much of their story. This was also one of the few times we saw cadets using people from other squads to affect their own squad’s dynamics, as – like I said – that seems to be kept mostly in-house. It may have had something to do with Lonnie’s overall standing among the cadets or how Kyle and Rogelio rank lower in their little hierarchy and seem uninterested in getting involved with the power politics, but I digress.

The argument itself was meaningless, really - the whole thing was a pissing contest, an attempt to assert dominance within their squad’s sudden power vacuum. Lonnie fancied herself the new leader of the squad, and she ended up getting her wish in a backwards way when Catra was promoted out of the squad and given official power over her. Catra, of course, took every opportunity to rub this in Lonnie’s face, perpetuating the cycle of abuse she’d fallen victim to.

The reason they had a power struggle in the first place wasn’t just because Adora left, it was because their pecking order was previously unclear. Catra wasn’t very cooperative and tended to go rogue, so she didn’t slot nicely into the power structure. She was also perceived as lazy, as she had adopted an air of nonchalance once she realized she’d never get the recognition or praise so easily heaped on Adora. (Why try when failing hurts so much?) That being said, she was Adora’s best friend and basically her sidekick, so in a way that made her second-in-command of the squad.

On the other hand, Lonnie was devoted to the squad and was always around to provide tangible support, so she was also kind of Adora’s second-in-command. Combined with her harder work ethic, this also gave her a very legitimate claim to the throne. She was obviously pissed when her teammate she saw as a lazy asshat got promoted, but to her credit she lived up to her own personal ethics, buying in and not pushing back against Catra’s authority until late in season 4.

Despite the power struggle, however, Catra and Lonnie do seem to have a bond. Even if they don’t like each other, they have a certain level of trust in each other. When the princesses invaded the Fright Zone in 3x04 and shit started to go sideways, the first person Catra was looking for to try to get support and/or answers was Lonnie. Then in 4x10 when she was starting to lose her mind amid a lack of sleep and Scorpia’s defection, she pulled Lonnie aside and demanded to know what was going on among the soldiers, what they thought of her.

This was an incredibly interesting scene with some deep implications. Because while it was on one hand an expression of trust in Lonnie, it was also an acknowledgement that Lonnie was one of her bullies and held clout among the people who have demeaned and abused her in the past. It also showed that Catra still has social anxiety and her sense of social power (as opposed to power in terms of rank) is very fragile, which is extremely characteristic of a bullying victim. Also, the fact that Catra said, “Just leave. Like everybody else.” implied that Lonnie leaving would hurt her emotionally, which is rather illuminating.

As for Lonnie, her loyalty meant she bought into the system and expected to Catra to do her job running the place, taking care of the Horde. And Catra certainly succeeded early on, taking territory and increasing productivity. In return, Lonnie was a loyal and obedient soldier, even if she never hesitated to give Catra a bit of attitude. But she became frustrated in season 4 when Catra went on her sunk cost fallacy spiral and ended up making things worse for everyone else as well as herself. This failure was a huge betrayal to Lonnie, and it’s important to note that she wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed if she had expected nothing of Catra in the first place. It’s one thing to be kind of a dick about your superior rank, another entirely to endanger your squad/friends (or anyone you are responsible for, really) and run them into the ground as a remedy for your own anxiety.

The breaking point of course was the scene in the locker room in 4x12, when a lonely Catra tried to be “friends” with the squad again and was briefly successful in mending fences a little until she snapped at Kyle and then at Lonnie, calling them pathetic. This prompted Lonnie to shove her, which in turn made Catra bare her claws and rush Lonnie. There was really no coming back from that, even though Kyle intervened before anyone got hurt.

As an aside, Kyle stepping up in this scene was amazing - this season in general was everything I wanted for him. And it’s important that it was him who intervened, because he was really the only one who could ask Catra, “We used to be your friends, why are you treating us like this?” It makes perfect sense for Catra to push back at Lonnie given their history, but Kyle doesn’t have a history of bullying Catra (quite the opposite). And wow, it had an impact on Catra. You could just see the confusion and regret on her face before she brings back the façade of anger and kicks them out.

When the squad left the Horde, Lonnie said that they were done protecting Catra. This assertion is interesting, given their checkered past – since when was anyone protecting Catra? Lonnie bullied her, and none of them protected Catra from Shadow Weaver, not even Adora (though bless her heart, she tried). But this does make some sense when you consider how much of the idea of friendship is based on loyalty, and how important that adherence to the structure is for protection. In Lonnie’s mind, even if Catra was now their commander, they were still a unit in a way. And she saw standing by and obeying Catra to be a form of protection, helping her stay respected and carry out her plans. Lonnie is a good support person, and by removing her support, she was in a way removing her protection as well.

(After the series is over I might just go all out and do a huge-ass meta about Catra and Lonnie through the seasons. I am absolutely fascinated by this relationship, if you can’t tell.)

Allyship

Overall, you can’t help but get the impression that the Horde’s version of friendship is more akin to allyship. It’s protection, unity, loyalty. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t get emotionally attached, it’s more that how you feel about someone is less important than what that relationship can do for you. That’s why Scorpia doesn’t even understand what friendship is. That’s why Catra tolerates “friends” who annoy her, because they’re useful to her (not that she doesn’t get attached in time, but that’s not why she tolerates them in the first place).

Catra’s one of the few people in the Horde who has experienced real friendship, as her bond with Adora was much more emotional than practical (even if it was both). And that explains why she eventually lashed out at Scorpia and said they were not friends when clearly they were by the Horde’s definition. Her and Adora really had taken the friends thing to a different level, and she was missing that dearly.

It will be interesting to watch the interactions between the Horde characters when they are thrown back together in new circumstances, out of the Horde’s rigid power structure. Honestly, the redefining of these alliances and friendships is one of the things I am most looking forward to in the final season.