#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.

[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)

[catras-breakup-song]

once again, my observations have come down to the conclusion that nothing would have ever been enough for these people.

SHE LITERALLY FUCKING DIED after being tortured & traumatized countless times?! well it wasn't intended directly as a consequence to her opening the portal so it means nothing, even though it was the end goal of the path she kept taking as a result of doing so. she was exiled to the crimson waste, which is frankly the most humane punishment we've seen for her, especially when antis want her to be socially exiled? well it wasn't related to her perpetuating the cycle of abuse, even though it was entirely because she failed to make amends with shadow weaver (through no fault of her own), and she had the audacity to not only survive but also enjoy that vacation, so we should do it again but worse!

mind you, it's interesting how "world domination" is the offensive crime in question here, but the character who is primarily responsible for that and also hurt catra in the first place, leading up to the moment she decided to pull the lever, via imprisonment then suicidal banishment never gets named. they get so upset that she activated the end of the world, but where is the outrage for the adult figures in her life that very recently set up a downwards spiral to her final breaking point when her judgement was too clouded to be reasoned with even by herself? in fact, why isn't there a call for the heads of the throne & his lab partner who built the portal (of course, entrapta insisted on quitting the second she realized the truth, but up until then was totally fine with bringing horde prime to etheria)?

they aren't honest about holding catra accountable because they're mad that she got effective rehabilitation (a core theme the show focuses on) rather than eternal torment (the way of prime's cult), which is how true justice should be served. they're not rebels, they're cops. always remember that the popular opinion is never inherently the right one.

I know I should ignore such comments and I don't usually get so mean, but people not grasping the most basic plot points makes me batty

there's not even a point in talking to these people because I am simply informing them that they are incorrect. and they will view it as a debate. there's nothing to debate. I am correct and my position will not waver

now, if we want to discuss personal interpretations and feelings about characters, I'm down to do that. I'm very understanding about people's personal reasons for disliking Catra, and I won't press the issue if it's personal. but alas, this commenter is basing their argument on incorrect statements about the plot of the show and responding is irresistible

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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…!

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

i'm glad more people are pointing out the flaws and bad writing in spop, and the toxicity in c//a's relationship. however, i do want to remind y'all to not get too biased.

i've seen a few people victim blame catra when it comes to her relationship with shadow weaver, and that's a really shitty thing to do. catra was a terrible person but the way shadow weaver treated her wasn't her fault.

i know that a lot of us like shadow weaver as a character, myself included, but she was still an abuser. she still physically and emotionally tortured a child for no real reason, because abusers don't need a reason. it's all well and good to point out catra's abusive behaviour but what shadow weaver did to her was not her fault.

i've even seen people implying that catra deserved to get abused or that shadow weaver abused her because she was disrespectful or didn't try enough during training. this is a really fucked up take. catra being disrespectful doesn't justify shadow weaver's abuse, that's like saying that adora deserved to get abused because she stood her ground against catra sometimes.

and catra didn't have to attend the horde training, none of them deserved to be groomed into child soldiers. the horde wasn't an environment any of them chose to grow up in. of course, catra's inferiority complex can seem a little hypocritical considering the fact that she never tried to do better, but i can understand the idea of wanting to give up because you're a slow learner or not naturally gifted in something.

also, catra seeking out shadow weaver's validation isn't bad writing or catra being stupid. it's pretty common in abusive relationships, actually. take zuko, for example. he's the example of a well-written character that we all turn to so for once, i'm gonna compare him to catra in a positive light.

ozai was actively abusive towards zuko but he still desperately wanted ozai's validation and approval. this is the result of being raised by an abusive parent. you feel like you have to earn their love, even when you're upset or angry at them, you secretly feel like it might be your fault.

i have to admit, the light spinner episode still makes me feel really bad for catra. the way she asks shadow weaver why she got abused really resonated with me, because i feel like catra secretly blamed herself for the way she was treated by her mother.

she might have told adora that shadow weaver was a horrible, manipulative person but i think deep down, catra had the classic dilemma of hating shadow weaver but craving for her love at the same time. she wanted to believe that shadow weaver might see some potential in her, the same way she did with adora. it's easier said than done to be like “well if you know that your parent is abusive, why don't you just leave them?” or “why did you let them manipulate you again?”

basically what i'm saying is: let's be mature about this whole situation. of course none of this justifies catra's actions and of course she deserves to be held responsible for her abusive behaviour and her war crimes. but let's not cross the line and start being insensitive towards abuse victims. catra did a lot of shitty things but being abused by shadow weaver wasn't one of them.

[catrasredemption-moved]

Hi! How about a fic where Catra’s old injuries from Shadow Weaver and being chipped act up and Adora and the BFS help her? I love your writing btw

Send prompts maybe?

Chronic pain.

That was what the surprisingly gentle healer called it when Catra had complained about pain and Adora had practically carried her to the infirmary. She wasn’t even hurt, but Adora wouldn’t let it up.

The healer had asked Catra if she had any history of chronic pain, which had gotten a shrug and, “Yeah, I guess.” Which had led to a ten-minute argument with Adora about what kind of pain, and how long, and why hadn’t she mentioned it, and-

The poor, patient healer had interrupted then to ask Catra when it had started, which led to an unpleasant trip down memory road, recalling all the times Shadow Weaver had used magic to abuse her, right up through everything that happened on Prime’s ship. A quick exam showed nothing was physically wrong with Catra at that moment, which meant what she was feeling now was more than likely a long-lasting effect of the abuse. There wasn’t much to be done about it - she could take something for the pain, try to relax whenever it hurt too much, and otherwise go about her life as usual.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Adora demanded as soon as they left.

“About what?” Catra asked flatly.

“About... About this! About all of it!”

“You knew what she was doing to me, it wasn’t exactly a secret.”

“I didn’t know it was that bad!”

Something snapped in Catra; she whirled to look at Adora, eyes flaring. “Of course you didn’t! What did you think happened all those times we got in trouble and you got sent to bed while she held me back? It’s not my fault it took a stupid magic destiny for you to realize how terrible she was!”

And oh, she immediately regretted saying that. But it was too late to take it back, too late not to see the hurt flash across Adora’s face. Catra stepped back without a word, and Melog wrapped around her ankles, cloaking them both and giving Catra a clean getaway.

Glimmer found her on the roof of the highest tower a few hours later. Her legs were drawn up to her chest, forehead resting on her knees, hands clasped behind her back.

“I didn’t mean it,” she mumbled.

“I know.” Glimmer sat with her, looking out at the Whispering Woods. “You know it’s really fun having you around. I find new places I would never even think to look usually.”

“Yeah I’m sure I’m great to have around when I do shit like this.”

“That’s...” Glimmer paused, then sighed. “I told Adora she was a terrible She-Ra.”

“So did I, you’re not special.”

“At least you said as her enemy and not one of her best friends and the queen.” Catra peeked at Glimmer out of the corner of her eye. “And I was wrong. And I shouldn’t have said that. And I’m not sure I deserved her forgiveness, but that’s beside the point. It sucks, though, because you’re not... wrong. I love Adora, I really, really do. But she focuses on the wrong things sometimes. A lot of the time, actually. The fact that she honestly believed the Horde was good is still insane to me. That’s who she is, though, isn’t it? I mean, it’s who Shadow Weaver raised her to be. Everything is exactly as it seems and everything can be fixed.”

Catra snorted despite herself. “How many times has she pulled we can fix this on you?”

“I lost count. And it gets so frustrating because sometimes you don’t want a fix, you just want to be angry. But she’s either looking forward for a solution or looking back to see how it’s all her fault.”

That was an accurate description of Adora and Catra hated it. “Starting to think we’re the only people who understand her,” she said with a small, humorless smile.

“We absolutely are,” Glimmer agreed. “So what are you going to do, keep sitting up here and staring at your legs or tell her why you’re upset so she can understand?”

Catra’s ears went flat against her head. “I don’t even know why I’m upset,” she admitted.

“Then tell her that. Just tell her something.”

Glimmer stood, holding out a hand. Catra took it, sighing, and closed her eyes, hoping that would alleviate some of the motion sickness.

It didn’t.

Somehow, Adora was right there to catch her. She heard Glimmer saying, “Have a good talk!” then the tinkle of bells as she disappeared. Catra forced her eyes open to look at Adora. She looked guilty. Of course she looked guilty.

“I’m-”

Catra presses a hand to her mouth. “Don’t. You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

She tugs Adora to the bed, sitting and curling in on herself. “I shouldn’t have gotten mad. It’s not your fault Shadow Weaver was a terrible person and that I never told you.”

“I should have-”

“What? Known?” Catra laughed bitterly. “I didn’t want you to know and then I was mad when you didn’t know. Tell me how any of that is fair.” Adora didn’t answer. “Yeah, it sucks. And of course she did enough damage to make it hurt for literally the rest of my life. But it’s not your fault. None of this is.”

Adora was quiet for a moment, actually taking the words to heart. “Does it hurt now?” she asked after a moment.

“A little. Everything always hurts a little though. Before Prime it was just some days...” Her hands found their way back to her neck. “But now it’s all the time. It’s not that bad, though. The headaches are the worst, and I can handle those. It’s not a big deal.”

Adora gently pulled her hands away from Catra’s neck. “It’s a big deal,” she said quietly. “If it hurts you, it’s a big deal. I wish you had told me.”

“I didn’t want you to freak out. You know, like you did.”

“Okay, but I’m not freaking out now.” Adora tugged Catra close, half into her lap, kissing the scar from the chip. “And I want to know.”

Catra tucked herself under Adora’s chin, an unconscious purr rumbling in her chest. “Are you okay now?” Adora asked, absentmindedly thumbing the scar.

“Yeah. Better with you.”

That, of course, meant peace would never last. “Have you guys talked?” Glimmer demanded as she reappeared with a pile of blankets and pillows and Bow, who had an armful of snacks.

“It’s time for Catra’s first Best Friend Squad sleepover!” he added cheerfully. Catra groaned, pressing her face into Adora’s shoulder.

“Please, no.”

“Too late, this is happening.”

Adora looked over Catra’s head, giving her friends a small smile. She knew this was their way of trying to distract from the day. Even if Catra complained, she would enjoy it. And Adora was grateful.