#nor does it make you a better person than someone who can make evil choices

[trappedinafantasy37]

🔥

Aight, here's my unpopular opinion that I'm sure will rifle up some feathers. If you get upset by what I have to say, tough shit. I warned you.

Based upon comments and posts I’ve seen across Reddit and Tumblr, the only people in the fandom who seem to truly comprehend the full nuance and depth of evil choices are the ones who are actually willing to make them. The ones who are actually willing to make the evil choices are the ones who actually see precisely how those evil choices impact the game, story, and characters. The ones who actually play the full game are the ones who understand the game the most (well, usually).

If you are someone who can’t do evil things cause “you feel bad” your opinion on the evil decisions has no value. Being spineless does not make you noble. Making evil choices in a video game also does not make you an evil person. I’m tired of constantly being called a bad person because I actually want to experience what the game has to offer. If you refuse to make evil choices, you miss out on a shit ton of content and characterization and come to wildly false/inaccurate conclusions because you are literally missing information. People who are unable to make evil decisions have to get their information from secondary or tertiary sources rather than see it for themselves. And, trust me, experiencing something yourself is extremely different than watching someone else do it or reading about someone else doing it.

[stardust-falling]

We gotta stop treating and viewing morality the way we do.

A moral compass/moral code is not some uncontrollable, innate thing that determines whether you’re good or bad.

Nor is it entirely under an individual’s control.

Individual morality is limited to a person’s experience— even if they try to be a good person, they can only act in ways they’ve experienced or against those things. This is why it’s so important to let people learn— especially if the issue at hand involves people or situations that they don’t know what the right choices are in. People will make mistakes— say insensitive things or hold harmful views— and these people might not have even encountered the idea that it could be harmful. It only matters what they do when they know.

Likewise, morality can be a luxury. If you’re worried about surviving, then that’s what your attention has to go to. Plus, if you’re in a survival situation, chances are that your experiences don’t tell you much about a good, non-harmful morality.

All that to say, having a strong moral compass is no reason to think yourself better than others. It’s half effort, half experience. Some people are less “good” or more “problematic” but still learning and want to be better.

Think about that before attacking someone.

***Obviously this doesn’t really apply to people who have experience and knowledge and choose to be awful anyway. But morals are something you learn, not that you’re born with, and you should always support people trying to be better and not be too harsh or else you’ll just alienate them more. Just have to put this disclaimer because this IS tumblr after all. The conservative politician who is upholding systems of oppression for their own benefit despite being well aware of the harm it causes doesn’t deserve more chances, but their grandchild who grew up knowing nothing else and having no alternate viewpoints presented as anything but evil does deserve a chance to learn and grow. I hope that’s clear enough.

[aveline-amelia]

On Sherlock, asexuality and arguing interpretation

I wanted to speak about this for a while but I was afraid of my words being twisted and being misunderstood. This is not pointed at a particular person. It is not meant to anger or sadden people. To repeat, all headcanons are valid. All ships are valid. This is not meant as a rebuttal of a particular reading of a character's identity or a reading of the show.

I have time and time again seen people say things like "It's so frustrating to see people say Sherlock can't be in love with John because he's asexual. People can be asexual and still in a romantic relationship!" And every time, I wanna say. "Yes, for some people that's true. But they meant aroace. They meant aroace. They clearly meant aroace. (aromantic asexual)"

A lot of people unfamiliar or uneducated with asexuality use "asexual" in place of "aroace". That's how I used it too when I discovered what it was. There was this article about a young woman who felt no sexual or any kind of attraction towards anyone. She was perfectly content with family connection and close friendships. She masturbated but didn't fantasise about anyone while she did and found it strange to find out people even do that.

When a person says they believe Sherlock is asexual and thus cannot be in love with John, this is what they mean most of the time.

They believe he does not participate in relationships or sex and is focused on the Work because he feels no sexual or romantic attraction towards anyone. And most of them feel represented by that because it aligns with their own experiences.

Now, Sherlock could be homoromantic or biromantic or even heteroromantic and asexual. He could be demisexual or gray ace.

But if a gay ace Sherlock and John entered a relationship on the show and they kissed and held hands and were a couple and got married. Guess what?

That would primarily be representative of a same-sex/gay couple. Sherlock is not on HBO. Even if they made Johnlock canon, they would never show them have sex on screen, probably not even implicitly. Sherlock was never going to be about discussion of sexual boundaries and consent. To the majority of the audience, it would have been a gay couple in a sexual (and romantic) relationship.

To quote someone, gay ace is still gay. A gay ace Sherlock would still be a version of asexual Sherlock. But it's not the same thing.

The same way if an ace Sherlock dated Molly and they were a couple, it would be more relatable to heterosexual, bisexual, people attracted to the opposite/different sex people because it aligns with their experiences. That doesn't mean heteroromantic ace people are the same as allo straights. They are not, unless they consider themselves as such.

When people say they want an asexual Sherlock, they mean one that is not dating or having sex with anyone, not John, Molly, Irene, Lestrade nor an original character.

They want to see that identity represented, that you can feel fulfilled in friendships and family relationships. That friendship is not less than, less important, less valuable. That not dating anyone doesn't make you broken.

That not everyone needs a sexual and/or romantic relationship!

That you don't need romantic entanglement to be complete as a human being!

But the inverse is also true.

People will claim it's better Johnlock isn’t canon because Sherlock is ace and that's better and evil Johnlockers are erasing his identity!

Moffat implied asexuality is boring ("...it's someone who abstains that's interesting.... it's a choice of a monk, not a choice of an asexual..") and stories where a character never falls in love is boring. He was going for celibacy, not asexuality. Don't give the writers credit for something at best implied on accident.

Is asexuality a valid and valuable reading? Yes, it is. But it's not canon. The same way Johnlockers saying making asexual Sherlock is erasing gay representation, or that ace Sherlock headcanons make them mad, or calling someone an "asexual fuck" and sending them hate, so is using ace representation as a shield to explain why you don't want more gay representation and that sacred male&male friendships should not be soiled by evil gay sex!

We should be able to have both. We should have more m&m friendships, m&f friendships and more gay, bi and ace representation!

Stop saying "why can't men just be friends?" You do not sound like someone advocating for more male friendship visibility. You just sound like a homophobe. If you see John and Sherlock as strong male friendship or "brothers" (*sigh*). Okay.

If you see them as a same-sex couple, that's great too. Do you. Just let others do the same.

[wickedsrest-rp]

Name: Pedro Vázquez Species: Human (Non-powered) Occupation: Park Ranger Age: 30 Years Old Played By: Kitty Face Claim: Sean Teale

"Shut up, I’m not a Boy Scout."

Ever since he was tiny, Pedro was definitely a nature kid. He enjoyed exploring caves and climbing trees, and he had a collection of cool rocks that his mom helped him paint. His drawings involved a lot of green pencil, and/or random animals he’d either seen or imagined. In this kind of place, where birds can have human teeth, the line often blurred between those two things.

It wasn’t surprising that he enjoyed biology class as he got older, taking an eclectic mix of science and art courses, and eventually joining the Wildlife Ecology programme at UMWR - where he tagged along with cryptid searches despite being absolutely terrified about actually finding one. He didn’t want to look like a loser or anything.

His willingness to go in search of creatures in spite of his fear didn’t go unnoticed - and alongside his family name, that secured him a State Park internship. He didn’t think that was going to be his career even though his mom’s side of the family had been doing it since forever. It was always really clear it was his own decision whether to take it up, or go do something more mundane elsewhere.

Pedro’s creativity made him thrive in that environment, which was something he hadn’t quite expected. It involved more entertainer skills than he’d thought, because people remembered safety measures a lot better with a fun rhyme or a really bad pun.

The problem with working in a dangerous place for years was that you couldn’t be on your guard all the time. It was literally impossible. All it took was the combination of complacency and momentary inattention, and he found himself joining the ranks of those who’d lost their lives to the woods - or their contents.

That was, until he found it again. He doesn’t know - nor does he want to know - the details, but his mom paid someone to bring him back. She said she wasn’t going to outlive her only son, no matter the cost. Pedro refused to listen to any more explanation. Someone else had to die for him to live, he understood that much, but had no desire to find out who. He’s working on the mixed feelings he has about it all. Parents would do anything to save their kids, sure, and he gets that - but that doesn’t automatically make it okay.

Not knowing the details was his choice, and he stood by it, but that came with its consequences. The person who resurrected him could be literally anyone. He could cross paths with them any time of day and not even know about it - or maybe he would know about it in some kind of weird mystical way. They were probably evil, because you would have to be to be some kind of resurrecter-for-hire - or at least someone with way weaker of an ethical code than him. He would rather that didn’t rub off on him.

It was normal to feel lost and distant after being…re-alived, right? There’s something missing - or something off, he isn’t sure what. Maybe there’s something that’s not even him at all left over. Maybe he’s secretly evil and he doesn’t know it yet. As far as everyone else is concerned, he went missing and now he’s back. That’s how he wants to keep things. He must be overthinking this.

Except, life is never quite that simple. Try explaining to your friends who know your pain tolerance is practically zero that you somehow decided to get a creepy looking tattoo? Okay, that one can be blamed on bad life choices after a drink or several - and people are kind of willing to believe that about him. A little light bullying from colleagues is definitely better than the alternative.

But the scars are harder to cover up. Especially now it’s coming up to summertime and he doesn’t have any non-suspicious reasoning to avoid swimming and sunbathing. He has been pretty lucky so far, if you can call it that, that he seems to run colder than he used to. Maybe he’s imagining that, but people have been wondering how he can tolerate wearing a sweater on long hikes as the weather gets warmer.

For all his creativity, he isn’t good at excuses. He can’t keep them straight. Maybe if he told them the truth but made it sound like a joke? Or, he could have technically been in hospital and had it be touch-and-go for a while. They look like he went a few rounds with a clawed thing and lost, which is basically what did happen, but that in combination with the weird tattoo? Someone would put two and two together. Especially in his line of work, where the improbable was practically mundane.

Character Facts:

Personality: Good-natured, empathetic, kind, creative, fearful, uncertain, naive, daydreamer

Pedro is that person who pulls out a guitar to play Wonderwall, despite the fact that absolutely nobody likes it. He is enjoying himself, and it wards off wildlife and eldritch beings.

He likes puns entirely too much, the kind of wordplay that results in audible groans. This also means he’s part of the team that comes up with cautionary rhymes for the visitors to remember.

Prior to his untimely death, he was a Park Ranger - not necessarily a very good one, but his family have consistently served over centuries. He liked the stories, and working in the outdoors, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Pedro is bilingual (English and Spanish).

[madraleen]

the more i think of scaramouche/the wanderer, the richer it all becomes, like-

spoilers for inversion of genesis quest (this got long)

you have scaramouche: he has lived 400+ years fanning his hatred, anger and hurt towards a world that betrayed him, all based on a lie. he goes full evil, dottore unlocks his powers, maybe the tsaritsa grants him more since we know the harbingers all have god-like powers, and then he wields the powers of actual gods, nearly becomes a god, and loses, loses his allies (if you can call them that), most of his powers, and most importantly his purpose. as a glorified captive to a very kind and compassionate god, he discovers that his entire life was based on a lie, his first found family never betrayed him but actually tried to protect him, and the person that ~gave him everything was actually the person that orchestrated everything and built that lie. the thing that scarred scaramouche and that has shaped his life for 400+ years, driving him, never happened. it all comes crumbling down, and scaramouche, evil bratty scaramouche, commits a final act of sacrifice and good will, a shot at redemption, an arguably heroic way to go: he yeets himself in the tree to erase his very existence, so that the people that died because of him would live on.

you have the wanderer: scaramouche if he had never associated with the fatui. he seems to have lived 400+ years as a harmless, completely powerless wanderer. he is kind, soft-spoken, helpful. empty as his previous counterpart, but without taking it out on the world, because (seemingly) the world never turned against him - if anything, the world’s been kind (see- the merchant, see- how he immediately trusts us. he seems to have no reason not to, therefore he’s not on his guard). he wants to see what scaramouche did that ended up with the wanderer, because it’s not him and yet it is him, more intimately than in a usual reincarnation cycle. he wants to face it, he wants to live it, and then he wants his memories back. he wants to assume responsibility. he won’t run away. he won’t pretend it was someone else. he won’t turn away from the full impact of his life. he will go on, symbolically and literally accepting himself, carrying the burden.

and then you have wanderscara: he has lived 400+ years both as an evil brat who IS sassy, and IS mean, and DOES have a bleak view of the world, but ALSO has lived an average human life wherein he had GOOD interactions with humans. he KNOWS he’s never been betrayed, and he both has and hasn’t lived with that feeling of false betrayal for 400+ years. nahida didn’t restore him to a previous version, he gave the wanderer scaramouche’s memories. from god-like AND powerless, he’s now an average vision holder (average as in, he’s not unique, not re: his gameplay). he has given himself over to judgment twice, and now a third time (”if the gokaden descendants want to stab me, let them, maybe that’s what i deserve” or whatever it is that he says). all THREE incarnations of him reach the same conclusion- sacrifice, and moving on while choosing a better path. and he’s still missing a heart, but as nahida says, he understands -even if he’s not ready to accept it- that a physical heart doesn’t make him human, his emotions do, and he’s fully human. he’s already whole. (plus we protect him from his god-self and he protects us, and that’s a rite of passage for our allies, lol.) he is still a brat, he is still a menace, because that’s who he is. but he also knows the full picture, and can make informed choices, and can see, firsthand, that neither all people nor all gods will try to dupe him, use him, experiment on him. some people, some gods, will see him as a person, and as a genuine ally. and that can soften a person.

idk, i find it all very fascinating. also he’s damn lucky it’s US, who are compassionate and kind and have helped the fatui time and time again, heh.

[cosmics-beings]

Thank you for bringing that up because I am not a black person but the choice of making Megatron a slave and the way the fandom reacted to it in succession always made me really uncomfortable. Frankly, I found it ridiculous that to make an "interesting" narrative for Megatron, it relied heavily on using the trauma of BIPOC people in an unsatisfactory manner because it wasn't FOR them. Their narratives and their history were simply just transferred onto Megatron without much thought of the connotations

The fandom's tendency to favour/popularize something and make "continuity soup" (mix the lore, facts and characterizations), proceeding to enforce them onto other continuities also contributes heavily to this because it affects the view of other iterations. I enjoy Megatron as a character because I think he has a lot of untapped potential, but I cannot engage in almost any fan content of him because I heavily disagree with some of his portrayals and how his fans view him; and it ties back to his portrayal as a slave

Though iterations do not ultimately have a direct impact on each other (unless multiversal travel is involved), there's still a narrative that extends to all versions of a character. It's why people can react so negatively to one portrayal of a character, I don't like IDW1 Optimus Prime nor am I interested in analysing his "complexity." Optimus started off as a lower class character and he is slowly getting more privileged which I don't like, that's me enforcing my preference for G1 onto other continuities; I personally find it odd that Optimus "must" be given a position of power as a spokesperson but they choose to take away the fact that his original characterization had him as a marginalized person...

I like Earthspark Megatron and I think his characterization is handled better than TFP Megatron, whose character flaws I cannot differentiate on whether they're intentional or subpar writing... But there are still elements of Earthspark Megatron that makes me slightly wary due to the context of his slavery history in other continuities; despite the fact that his backstory in Earthspark is unconfirmed

TW discussions about slavery and abuse (for both megatron and starscream), some IDW and ES critical opinions as well.

This has been sitting in my ask for some time now, but I really REALLY agree. I’ve wanted to answer this for weeks and I’ve just been finding a way to do so. I’m gonna break this down and answer /agree with this the best I can.

Coming from someone with recent, traceable ancestry, and whose whole existence is because of slavery, I agree. And I think there needs to be HONEST discussion about why a lot of writers, who aren’t black or who aren’t familiar with slavery or don’t have ancestry tied to it, think that making someone a slave is an interesting narrative device, if they're just going to make them an abuser, a genocidal tyrant, etc., at the end. Because at that point, the narrative is just, shaming an abuse victim. Especially, in the case of Megatron, where it is not handled right and not everyone actually has the nuance to understand that or how problematic it is. The thing is that I actually like IDW Megatron, he is my favorite one. And next to him, is actually Earthspark Megatron.

My opinion however, is that we don’t really need anymore narratives where slaves rise against their oppressors and abusers, and become oppressors and abusers themselves. This isn’t just an issue with Megatron, but we also see it with characters in other popular media like…Hama and Jet, from Avatar or even Daenerys from Game of Thrones (and I use her loosely because while she was a slave turned into a dictator, her narrative also relied heavily on white saviorism. But that isn’t for here or there). Why is it needed? What does that tell victims and survivors of these things?

Another issue is that Megatron, despite how evil he IS, isn’t really ever painted as a victim before all of this. We've got his origin in IDW and a few more chapters in the LL, but we don't really get to see just how gritty it is. His narrative of slavery and abuse, because Megatron is an abuse victim is not actually highlighted in a way it should be imo, and the readers are mostly left to either have a vague idea of what he went through, or not understand how brutal it is. And slavery.is.brutal. it is one of the most violent and dehumanizing forms of abuse. And for the writers to not portray that shows it was something they didn’t really research or explain. And I will also come back to this later.

That narrative of an oppressed person, turning into an oppressor imo just perpetrates harmful ideas. And it takes real life issues, like slavery, colonization, violence, abuse, and ends up shaming the victims for their uprising. We don’t really need the whole “even someone who is hurt and tries to do better, can also hurt people. And they can be as bad as their oppressors” if it’s not written well, and if it’s not really adding anything positive to the struggle it’s trying to portray.

IDW Megatron ended up right where he started, but IMO worse. Yes, he got a family on the Lost Light, but the Lost Light was a prison sentence, with the understanding that he’d eventually be executed, or worse. He was still, by definition at the mercy of a prime when working with Rodimus, and even by extension Optimus. He still, at the end of his life had no power, agency or true autonomy. There was no way he, as a surrendered Decepticon, could have such privilege when he was aboard the Lost Light.

So while the Lost Light offers us a light hearted and even gut wrenching conclusion to Megatron’s story, it still rubs me the wrong way. He is still a slave, who the narrative decided to turn into a monster and abuser, and at the end of the day, he gets executed. That is just not comforting to me in the slightest.

I personally thought that ES would remedy that a bit, and it seemed to do so. The trope of slave turned into genocidal warlord, still existed but not only did we get to see him changing and redeeming himself, but we also got to see him making up to people he’d hurt. And his narrative, at least, from what we know, didn’t end in death.

But there are still aspects of ES that I don’t like, and with the recent Starscream episode, it’s confirmed that Megatron was still an abusive person (and lemme make it clear that i am HAPPY that starscream's abuse was finally taken seriously and not made a joke, but I still have critiques about how Megatrons' writing was handled, and those two opinions can co-exist T-T).

And this is where fandom in itself has kinda caused me to nope out because we have fans, wrt to both Megatron and Starscream not understanding the concept of a flawed victim and not really letting victims of abuse take accountability for what they’ve done wrong.

I’m seeing a lot of people saying they don’t like Megatron because of what he did…and saying that he is an abuser and that he deserves to be killed or that, he shouldn’t be redeemed in the show. Likewise, I see tons of people saying that it’s unfair to blame Starscream for how he hurt people, because it was a side affect of Megatron’s abuse, and therefore, he is blameless.

Remember earlier in this ask, I mentioned how Megatron’s own slavery and abuse wasn’t highlighted enough because the writers didn’t care? Well that’s what that is. And this is what I mean by fandoms cannot handle a flawed victim of abuse. Megatron is ALSO a victim of abuse, and his abuse is a reason he treated Starscream the way he did. This isn’t to take away from how Megatron treated Starscream at all, because I’ve talked enough on this blog about how he needs to be held accountable, to the point of being blocked and harassed. Megatron treated Starscream like absolute garbage and essentially made him a punching back in IDW and it SEEMS ES. That is something that shouldn't be igored and Megatron needs to be held accountable.

But my point is that if you are saying that Starscream shouldn’t be held accountable for his treatment of others (which is abusive!!) because of how Megatron treated him, then you’re also agreeing that Megatron cannot be held accountable for how he treated Starscream! Because Megatron's abusers caused him to abuse Starscream.

And that is bullshit.  And that is what I mean that fan spaces a.) don’t know that victism can be flawed and b.) the writers again, don’t have the emotional capacity or empathy to portray a victim of slavery as a survivor/traumatized person in an impactful and meaningful way.

Point a.) affects Starscream and Megatron. Because Megatron is seen as doing bad things, because the narrative again, doesn’t know how to write slave narratives. And because Megatron is bad and does bad things, this idea that he also a victim of abuse and that impacts how he treats other is not focused on at all. Likewise, Starscream is also abusive himself despite being a victim, because of shit that happened to him both because of Megatron and other things. But because fandoms don’t think abuse victims can be flawed and cause harm, a lot of fans do not actually allow Starscream to be flawed. A lot of fans attempt to act like he shouldn't be held accountable for the abuse he perpetrated and that's not true. Because that also doesn't allow him to grow and heal. Healing isn't always pretty and sometimes, it takes accountability but it's still healing.

Point b.) is the most important point because this ties back to the current conflict with both Earthspark and IDW Megatron. And that is the writers not having nuance or understanding to write a slave narrative where a revolutionary becomes corrupted. Because…at the end of the day, those narratives don’t need to exist. As an abuse victim, as a starscream fan, as a megatron fan, and as a Black person living in the South, I just do not think Megatron’s narrative in IDW AND Earthspark is given any sort of justice of nuance. And by the way a vast chunk of the ES Fandom acted, understandably, it just makes me angrier at the writers. And I would think, that for a show like Earthspark, that prioritizes Black people, and Black narratives, then a story such as slavery would be given proper care and nuance.

But that’s also an issue…the Black characters in ES aren’t written well, at all. They aren’t even characters, they are concepts and used as plot devices and are at large forgotten by the fandom. Which is disrespectful but we have writers that don’t actually understand the characters and narratives they are writing, again.

And we see it with Megatron for sure. I thought that ES would do better by him, but it didn’t, and the fandom discourse and lack of nuance and understanding SHOWS me that. Am I happy he’s getting redeemed – yes I am. Show wise. But what im not happy about is that, they have once again, chosen to go a slavery route (at least that is HEAVILY implied), but haven’t done enough to show or offer any type of empathy or actual, deep discussion about how that form of abuse deserves actual nuance. Even if we do see a redemption, it’s still not enough, especially if the writers—who write him wishy washy anyway—aren’t going to go all out and explain exactly why he became a Decepticon and the horrors of slavery.

This also isn’t to excuse him! Because I know that’s where this was going. Because as much as I love him, I can’t act like what he did is excusable despite his oppression. He was a genocidal tyrant, he became what he hated, he –as a victim of abuse, decided to take that abuse and trauma out on someone else. This isn’t excusing his actions.

It is more so, me wishing that ES handled things better, by earlier writing rather than dropping bits and pieces of a harmful IDW narrative, and not expanding in it in such a way that offered the fandom discussion points or allowed us to have nuance. It seems that, if you don’t have a personal relationship with slavery and the abusive dynamic, then you just don’t understand how bad it is.

And that was finally, my issue with IDW. For all Megatron changed at the end, and got better, he was still ultimately shamed, by the writing, for not wanting to be a victim of abuse anymore. The Lost Light was a bandaid on a very large, and unhealing wound.

The writers took a victim of violent abuse and instead of giving him agency and a good resolution, they made him worse than his oppressors. They made the people that oppress him, at the end of the day, treat him like a dog.

And I AM talking about Optimus here, since you brought him up. And that should also be a dynamic spoken about more. Optimus coming from a place of privilege, and being the ‘good’ one, the one who puts Megatron in his place, the one appointed by the gods to quite literally force the slave, who has turned corrupted, back into a bondage is just…I love Optimus, but that was not good writing. That wasn’t good writing at all. And it again, showed the lack of concern, empathy or understanding for handling a narrative like slavery.

If at the end of the day, your mission was to make a cop, turned prime (another oppressive group), throw and control the life of a slave who had, in the process of his revolution, lost his way…then idk you didn’t need to be writing his narrative in the first place. Because you don’t understand how harmful it is and how it’s not needed.

I don’t think the slave, turned into tyrant/abuser is needed. Especially since Megatron is an abuse victim, and by making him an evil warlord, the writers ended up shaming/punishing him for his abuse. But if it IS to be done, it needs to be done right. And for the longest time, I thought ES was doing it right but chile…

These recent fandom discussions have told me otherwise.

Do nawt get me started on TFP Megatron because that is another 5 pages of negativity.

Anyway, thank you so much for understanding.

At the end of the DAY, I DO love IDW megs the most, and I also love ES megatron. Because I wanted to see him turn good and find redemption if that was the route they chose to go. But idw fumbled, badly..like really badly. And ES, kinda did so with the writing as well. I know it’s an unpopular opinion to critique ES writing so I’ll keep it to a minimum. But similar to how the black and Asian characters in ES are more concepts, not characters, the writing for Megatron (and some other legacy characters) is off…it just doesn’t make enough sense to me.

But thank you so much and I am sorry it took so long to ask. If you have any more questions then please, throw them my way <3.

alll i can say at this point is thanks for reading, and if u liked this consider following my twitter &lt;3

[septembersghost]

As a WOC I get some of the critiques for Taylor but based on the timing of all this, it does feel sometimes like I’m being used as an excuse to say every filthy thing possible about Taylor. It’s okay to give her a little grace. And the other thing I’ve noticed is even pre that guy people were already being terrible about Taylor the minute Joe was gone. So it kind of makes me feel terrible for her that she really needs a relationship for people to treat her a bit better.

i hear you, you do not deserve to be used as a shield or a prop for people whose central intent is to bash her just because they hate her in general. that's not uplifting or amplifying you, nor anyone.

it's related to why i've been so upset that people are calling m*tty a n*zi - criticize him, criticize his gross and bigoted actions, but the moment they start to misuse very heavy terms like that, terms that have significant meaning, then any rational argument and criticism loses all its weight, and they're making the situation worse. (i wrote a long post about this a couple of weeks ago and then made it private because i was afraid of being attacked on here, which in and of itself speaks to how toxic the conversation had gotten, where we couldn't even speak up and explain why certain parts of it had become harmful).

anyway, the people doing this, talking over woc or other marginalized fans, using inflammatory rhetoric, they don't actually care that any of us were hurt or concerned, they only want the excuse to hate her. it's not fair that anybody should be used to further that toxicity rather than being centered as a person, and it's wrong to see our identities fractured and wielded to tear her apart when that's so far away from what we were trying to talk about when this started. it's very clear to me now how much of this was driven by people who were anxiously awaiting the day they could attack again, to swarm at blood in the water. the vile things being brought back up and said with no hesitation about her, the people openly hoping for her to come to harm, i wouldn't trust a single one of them to truly care if we needed them, you know? because they have done nothing but exhibit a complete dearth of empathy, and vicious enjoyment at ripping a woman to shreds. the impact that all the old accusations have had, all the cruel and sexist press we thought we'd moved past, was just lingering beneath the surface waiting to be pulled up again. i find it very disturbing and unpleasant.

it also makes legitimate criticism difficult because everything always reaches this tipping point, where it goes from rational and thoughtful discussion to unfiltered vitriol. how do we find a balance where we can fairly say, this is why this is upsetting and needs to be taken into account, when everyone ends up turning it into hyperbolic rage like, this person is a disgusting evil narcissist untalented slut and i hope she dies. those are nowhere near the same universe of a conversation!

"it kind of makes me feel terrible for her that she really needs a relationship for people to treat her a bit better." and have you noticed how people define her completely by the man she's with? i said this to a friend, but anyone who believes that sleeping with a dirtbag has ruined her forever is outright perpetuating the most old-fashioned kind of puritanical shaming, where women are judged and seen as tainted because of men. it's awful, it's a really awful mentality to see still happening!

and yeah, it started brewing the moment she and joe broke up. that is not to say she has handled all of this well, there have been a lot of missteps, bad choices, and bad optics, and some of that is probably directly because of the fact that she's struggling with a destabilizing change in her life. we can understand that while not excusing all of it. people are rarely black and white, and this situation has been complicated. disappointment doesn't mean not showing someone any compassion at all. "It’s okay to give her a little grace." i completely agree, and thank you for saying that, you are obviously a kind and thoughtful person. <3 i hope you've been doing okay.

[girl4music]

What makes a hero? Many things. But one thing in particular is the willingness to face the evil and cruelty of the world in order to change or save it. Doing what so many either are afraid, are too incompetent or simply just refuse to do. To be a hero is to sacrifice. To fight and die for something worth fighting for. But it should always ALWAYS be your choice to do any of it.

This is what Buffy teaches above all. Choice. Specifically, if it’s not your choice then it’s not your problem. And if you are forced into it, it is wrong. That’s the overall meaning of the entire show to me. That to do something is something that must be chosen by that of which has to do it or it’s abuse.

No one should be made to assume a role, take on a job and fulfil an obligation that they are not happy with. And if it really is that crucial that someone must, then let it be everyone that can and not just one person. A hero cannot be a hero alone and nor should they have to. A hero should have help and feel no shame in having it. A hero should be able to feel and want and need like anyone else does. Just because a hero has a responsibility to save lives does not mean they should put their own life aside all the time. And I believe there is something fundamentally wrong with the narrative if this is the main message given from it.

This is why I don’t talk so much about Buffy (the character) as I should despite loving her so much too. To look upon her and what she does as a “good” thing knowing it was never her choice to be or do it is painful. Just watching this character strive and struggle and sacrifice is immensely painful to see. And it is so painful because I cannot fathom for a second that one would ever put themselves through this without first choosing to do so. And while you can say that that’s the point. That no one would choose it, … it doesn’t help my understanding any better. Sorry.

I fundamentally value life. That does include my own. And if I was forced to do what Buffy is forced to do, I would not last five minutes not just because I would be killed in battle, but because I would kill myself. ‘Cause you see,… I’m not afraid of death. What I am afraid of is not living. And to me, not living means not having the freedom to do what I want to with my life. If I do not have that,… then I am already dead anyway. So, what’s the damn difference if I just off myself?

It’s true. Buffy doesn’t have a destiny, she has a choice. And in the end she chose to be a hero for everyone as well as herself by giving everyone with the potentiality to be a hero to do the same. This wasn’t a conclusive ending, but it was a good one because at least it dealt with the big question in the narrative. Why only one girl in all the world to save it?

BUFFY SUMMERS: “So here's the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power, now? In every generation, one Slayer is born, because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. [points to Willow] This woman... is more powerful than all of them combined. [Willow whimpers] So I say we change the rule. I say my power... should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the Scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power, can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?”

[theredqueenandthebloodwyrm]

I didn't like She-Hulk, but I wanted to

Obviously this is just my opinion so you're free to disagree and all that.

When I went into watching She-Hulk it was sometime after hearing about how bad it is "worst show ever" "she sucks" but I had chalked up most of it to bandwagon hate / sexism / the anti-woke crowd (which to be fair does and has review bombed stuff before). So I went into this thinking "alright, I'm not getting on any hate bandwagons, I want to give this show a fair take, I'm sure it's not that bad / not bad / let's judge it based off its contents". It just felt like wasted potential when I finished watching it.

(read more because this post is getting long)

Needless to say, I was disappointed...so much disappoint. Like did they want to fail? tf happened in the writer's room? Look, I'm not a lawyer nor do I study law nor do I have any idea of how it works so I'm not gonna criticize the lawyer stuff, just the characters + plot stuff.

The fact that the dude she went on a few dates with and sleep with, who then later ghosted her, turned out to belong to some evil villain hate group? It was stupid, I didn't like it, I feel like it would have worked better if he was just a regular guy who ghosted her (and it still tells a lesson about Jen Walters and what she has to deal with as a woman dating). It felt cheap and cliché that he was some baddie rather than some regular douche? I dunno, maybe someone else can provide a different take or explain it some to me. But that's just a personal nitpicky thing, not like "worst thing ever" yknow.

Daredevil was...something. His introduction during the Leap Frog episode was...fine? not entirely out of character but some of lines didn't fit his voice? and look I like happy Matt Murdock too, and I don't want just some dreary sad Daredevil, like he can be happy. It just felt that the writers didn't necessarily have a handle on his voice? Also that weird walk of shame was unnecessary and weirdly demeaning lmao now that I'm thinking about it.

I didn't mind Jen besting the Hulk, I thought it was funny and had that classic sibling rivalry vibes (well, cousin vibes in this case but you know). Her having a better handle on her rage due to sexism she experienced as a woman was dope and made sense to me.

The fourth wall breaking was...a...choice. It was a choice that was fine at first though there reached a point where there was too much wall breaking, especially in the episodes leading up to the Finale. Like, it had funny 4th wall moments but then the next episode it would start to be a bit too much 4th wall breaking at once? not sure if that makes sense.

The finale made me want to hit my head against a wall because just why? It's this weird mess of 4th wall breaking that doesn't work?

Also the episode starts at afternoon/night and then it skips to morning when Jen rewrites the story? The writers' room / Kevin Fiege Bot was like the best example of what not to do? does it count as lampshading? If it counts as lampshading then it's what not to do when lampshading. Like She-Hulk isn't Gwenpool or Deadpool, she shouldn't be breaking reality and rewriting her own story like that.

Also I didn't like the mustard ketchup suit Daredevil had? I get that it was an OG Comics reference but the colors clashed? and not in a good way. taste is subjective and all that, and red + yellow can look good but meh.

Look, there's fun moments and characters beat. It's not the worst thing ever but I just can't get behind the ending, it sours the whole thing a bit for me.

It had fun moments like with the rogue magician summoning demons, Leap Frog, and whatnot. Like I'd throw She-Hulk scenes on a funny marvel comp video, but it felt flat in terms of character building?

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Bo Katan vs Satine Kryze

I want to talk about the topic that not a lot of people seem to bring up, not here, nor on You Tube.

Both Bo Katan and Satine Kryze are not great leaders. They care about their people (allegedly but I'll get to it). But that doesn't equal being a capable ruler.

Let's start with Satine cause she is the lesser evil of the two.

Her being a pacifist but also defending herself isn't hypocrisy. What about her not killing the literal terrorist who threatened her life, the life of Obi-Wan who she loves, and an entire ship full of people? Hesitating to kill someone, even a bad person, when you haven't killed anyone yet isn't that out of the ordinary. If anything I have more gripes with Obi-Wan being apparently more worried about looking good in front of Satine than stepping up and killing a guy.  

But even then to me, it looked more like neither of them wanted to provoke him and accidentally blow up the ship.

Good thing Anakin saved their asses and neither of them had to make a hard choice.

A) Obi-Wan toughens up and stops caring what his ex thinks of him and does what they both know he did in the past and will do in the future, kill a dangerous person threatening the lives of others.

B) If Satine killed him she would've had to accept that sometimes you have to kill people to save yourself and others. She would have to see thinks not only from her point of view ''You're bad for participating in war even though you were the ones attacked first and you just protecting yourselves.'' Of course, Clone Wars are more complex than good vs bad.

This brings me to my second point.

Satin saw right through Palpatine's plan to occupy Mandalore.

She was kind of in a lose-lose situation. If she agrees to another army occupying her homeworld and, given the record of other planets saved by the Republic, be completely wrecked or let her guards/police/army do things themselves. Even tho they are no match for a criminal underworld.

And that brings us to criticism number three.

Her army or lack there off because she demilitarized Mandalore. I think I don't need to point out how stupid that is to have no army. Even if you're a pacifist and don't intend on attacking anyone that doesn't mean you will never get attacked yourself. Especially when the war is going on just a stone's throw away from your home planet.

Going from what we showed in the show this ''demilitarization'' meant that either you stop being warmongering warriors which value strength over anything else or go to the moon.

And that's when the lack of explicitly shown backstory rears its ugly head. Everybody has their own point of view. From the Death Watch's point of view, Satin is disrespecting her and their culture for trying to make it more peaceful and doesn't deserve to call herself a Mandalorian.

From Satin's point of view, she banished aggressive warmongers.

The timeline of when the Death Watch became a terrorist group is crucial. If they turned ''true Mandalorians'' supremacy when they were still living on the planet and Satin's idea of dealing with them wasn't throwing their asses in jail but banishing them to their moon which doesn't even change that much because they can travel to Mandalore no problem, then she's an idiot.

If the Death Watch formed after the banishment that means that instead of cultivating their culture and creating their own society on the moon and showing the Galaxy who is ''better'' they decided to turn into a terrorist group and eventually take over the planet.

''But Satine's military is so weak! The Death Watch had to come in and save them! It means that they're right!’’

If you think that then you fall for their manipulation.

Let's not forget how the whole crime underworld attacking Mandalore and making the Death Watch look like heroes was a genius plan concocted by Maul. These attacks were staged, and Death Watch knew exactly when and what was going to happen, giving them a huge advantage. They just show up and deal with the problem before the actual guards could even get there. They are careful to not kill each other or civilians, only the guards. That way they show how ''peaceful'' they can be and how useless the guards are. 

We have no idea how it would've turned out if all those crime syndicates were actually trying to fight and win and the Death Watch was supposed to be a regular military without their enemies giving themselves on a silver platter.

It’s getting long. All in all, Satin isn't that bad. She's not perfect, no one is. But she also had a lot of things stuck against her that were outside of her control and I doubt if anyone could have handled it better.

In part two I'm going to tear into Bo Katan.

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Daily Devotionals for October 5, 2024

Proverbs: God's Wisdom for Daily Living

Devotional Scripture:

Proverbs 25:23-24 (KJV): 23 The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. 24 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house. Proverbs 25:23-24 (AMP): 23 The north wind brings forth rain; so does a backbiting tongue bring forth an angry countenance. 24 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a disagreeing, quarrelsome, and scolding woman.

Thought for the Day

Verse 23 - As surely as the north wind brings rain after the long dry season, speaking evil of someone in their absence produces anger; if not in those listening, in the slandered person when he hears it. Backbiters expect others to agree with them. In mixed company, they can address the friends, as well as the enemies of the person they attack, bringing trouble upon themselves.

No one wants to be around a backbiter except other backbiters. Their talk is spiteful and unpleasant. Common sense tells you that anyone who will talk to you about others will also talk about you. There is a danger of being drawn into their sin if you listen to them and happen not to like the person to whom they complain. That is one reason we should not give an ear to people like that. However, the main reason that we should avoid gossip and backbiting is because it will drive us from God's presence. Hearing someone slander others behind their backs should be as unpleasant to God's children as being caught in a heavy rain driven by a cold, blasting wind. We should let it be known, by our expressions if nothing else, that we disapprove of such talk. Notice in Psalm 15:1-3, the qualities of those who abide in God's presence: "LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbites not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor."

Verse 24 - This is a repeat of Proverbs 21:9, which we looked at on Day 203. We noted earlier that when Scripture repeats something, it is like a red flag; it should draw our attention. God intends marriage to be a life-long commitment. We must choose the one with whom we will spend our lives with great care. Any character flaws we notice in someone (including ourselves) before marriage will be amplified afterward. Contentious people make life miserable for those around them. Continual nagging can, in time, destroy friendships and even marriages. We must guard what we say and what we give an ear to. "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it" (Psalm 34:12-14).

Prayer Devotional for the Day

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the wisdom in Your Word. Lord, we desire to heed the things that You have written in the Bible. Give us the grace to speak righteous and good things and to avoid listening to those who would "bad mouth" others. Lord, help us not to be one who would yield to nagging or belittling others. Lord, guide us in our choices of friends and let us be a faithful and loyal friend at all times. We give You our hearts and mouth and may they both agree with Your Word and be pleasing to You. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

[emberj-theotherfoot]

People are allowed to like things.

People are also allowed to dislike things.

People are allowed to be perfectly neutral and refuse to give an opinion if they don't feel comfortable sharing it.

What I don't think is okay is harassing people under any circumstances.

I don't care how "horrible" or "morally wrong" a person seems to another person, they're still a person.

I'm also not interested in getting a lecture on morality from people with questionable morals.

Talking about how morally fucked a person is while also trying to bully that person off the internet is going to make me question your morals more than the other guy.

Their status in my eyes is meaningless, ya know?

Rich, poor, waiter, ticket puncher, boxer, artist, fan, some guy waiting in line at your local Walmart, they all bleed the same color, what's it matter?

They're all human.

They're not these unkillable gods with cartoon mastermind intentions, they're just guys.

Guys make mistakes.

They fuck up.

It's a matter of how they choose to handle their fuck ups that determine if they're truly evil or not in my eyes.

People are capable of change.

They can grow, get help, make better choices.

It's the beautiful thing about being human.

Just because you make a mistake, or do something bad, it doesn't make you irredeemable.

People can be evil at times, but just because they're evil at one stage doesn't mean they have to be evil during another.

Anyone is capable of change.

They just have to put in the effort.

If someone says or does something wrong, I don't think it's wrong to criticize them.

It's okay to say "this person fucked up".

That said, I draw the line at harassment, character assassination, and trying to bully them off the internet.

That isn't fucking okay.

Even if a person is truly evil, why stoop to their level?

It comes off as really childish, immature, tactless, and evil.

The exact opposite of what you're going for.

Unless you really are evil and take enjoyment in others pain and misery.

If that's the case, then you're not worth my time, nor my energy.

Yes, you are capable of change.

It's just a matter of you actually putting in the effort.

If you have no interest in doing so, then I won't entertain the idea of being your source for amusement.

You'll get more endorphins talking to a brick wall than you will talking to me.

Some battles just aren't worth it in my eyes.

You have such a limited amount of time in this world, do you really wanna waste it being mad at some guy?

It would be less draining to just ignore them, and invest your time in something that actually rejuvenates you.

Don't give people you don't think deserve your time your time.

Better yet, here's something my grandad told me while he was still kickin';

"If you can't think of anything nice to say, then just keep your mouth shut."

I'm not gonna say who or what this is about.

I just needed to vent a bit.

[counterturn]

A view of morality

Something I see mentioned a lot around the various flavours of internet discourse is people talking about how ‘morality is not black and white’. This is something that seems to be generally accepted by most people (as it should be, given the fact that it is true), but it does not seem to really make much of a difference in how the discussion progresses. It is closer to an expression of frustration than being any sort of help.

I suspect the reason why that is is that while it’s all well and good to recognise that ‘morality is not black and white’, that phrase doesn’t really give you an idea of how morality should be thought of instead. So I want to share how I, personally, think about moral issues. It’s important to note before continuing that this isn’t really a ‘system’ or a thought-out model; this is just what my brain has learned to do and what I find useful. Less of a ‘this is how you should think’ and more of a ‘this is one way to think about morality’.

The good and evil dichotomy, although not absolute, is certainly a good starting point for considering. I see morality as a spectrum, with good and evil on either end and fuzzy, only semi-defined categories in between. When judging an action (which should not be the goal of moral thinking, but it is something we all engage in nonetheless), both the intention and the outcome are relevant, though of course consequence is of the essence. After all, what is better: a good deed done for selfish reasons, or a bad deed following good intentions? And on the other hand, is a misguided bad deed equal to one done with the deliberate intent to harm? These subjective exercises are left to the reader.

Here are my categories, roughly how I perceive them:

Good - Things that are good. Jesus would do these things. To help, to forgive, to be there. We should aim for these things, but there is no shame in falling short and it is unreasonable to hold others to the standard of goodness.

Let me say that again. We should strive for goodness, but not hold ourselves or each other to that standard. It is best-case, best behaviour, best intentions.

Goodness is that annoying voice in your head that recommends always the toughest and least satisfying choice. Do not respond in kind, even if you have the perfect snide remark. Be the bigger person. Help those who cannot help you back. Help those who would never once help you back. Help those who have done nothing to deserve it. Goodness is hard, but good. Hope for good in others, but do not expect it of them. People want to do good, but goodness is hard. To fall short of goodness is not a mistake, nor is it a failure. Goodness i hard.

Do not allow good to be your enemy, only your measuring stick. Never become bitter because you fail to live up to your own standards of goodness, and doubly so for someone else’s. Always strive to be good, even if you never achieve it, and never try to force good onto others.

Reasonable - This is where most of our efforts should fall. Aim for good, but recognise that if you can’t be good you should at least try and be reasonable. Reasonable is goodness tempered with realism and practicality. Being a vegan and causing no harm to the world and its inhabitants is good, but being vegetarian because you don’t have good health stores around or the ones that you do are too expensive for your lifestyle is reasonable. Helping people out only when you have the energy for it is reasonable. Being kind to your friends and not to your enemies is reasonable.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Good is hard, and even reasonable can be hard when pressed. But reasonable is enough. Enough to make a good impact and enough to be proud of.

Fair - Fair is fair. It isn’t necessarily a good moral decision, and it is the sort of zero-sum thinking that we should want to rise above, but it is a fair decision to make. Much of what we do will fall into this area, and this is the frontier at which we must actively try and fight if we want to be good and better people.

It is a moral goal, at the very least for someone like myself who wants to see the world become a better place, that we do better than just being fair. But fair’s fair. You won’t hear any argument from me. You cut someone out of your life because they hurt you? That’s fair. Good is forgiveness, and reasonable is giving them a second chance, but cutting them out is fair, and I will never look down on your for it.

And sometimes fair is correct. The world is a good place, and people want good, but you will find no shortage of malice if you approach it with naivety. Sometimes a second chance can only lead to a second stitch. Fair is the frontier at which evil meets its match, receiving as much negativity as it puts out. But if all we do is fair, then how will we ever be good? Good is hard, so try to be reasonable. But if you can’t, at least be fair.

Understandable - Do not let the name fool you: we are now in the domain of evil. And yet much of the bad done by ones upon others is not insensate, nor is it random. And let us not for a moment ignore that there can and do arise circumstances in life where evil is necessary. Situations in which goodness can find itself powerless to resolve a pressing dilemma.

A man who kills his daughter’s rapist is not performing an act of good, but the decision is understandable. Resorting to murder is seldom reasonable and hardly ever fair, but where justice fails, acts of evil can be understood and accepted if not condoned.

Understandable does not mean acceptable. Understandable does not mean justifiable. Understandable does not mean proportionate. It just means that you can understand the human reasons why a situation turned out the way it did, including the evil parts. The bombings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima were certainly not reasonable, and they were far from fair. But they are understandable. It is a chain of cause and effect, and hard to see how the situation could have ended differently given how it started. It would have taken true goodness to avert such a calamity, which, as I said above, is not a standard we can hold humans to. Understandable is the nature of tragedy. Indeed, our capacity to understand it is what makes it tragic.

Most of the bad that we encounter is understandable. That doesn’t make it alright, but it is helpful for painting the moral landscape of human society to understand evil rather than just condemning it.

Evil - Evil in itself goes beyond understandability. To hurt others for no reason other than your own gain. To abuse your power for the pure hedonic pleasure of the bones cracking underfoot. To desecrate the sacred precisely because it is said to be so. Beyond justification and beyond the pursuit of any goal lies the land of evil-within-itself. And it is important to know the demon by its name. Evil is not rare. Evil is not defective. Evil is the supreme will of the ego to satisfy itself beyond all reason, and it dwells within us all. In your heart and in my heart, the wicked beast rests, poking its head out to curry favor in response to pain and fear. Reach inside and feel its teeth with your bare hands. Learn its voice so you can recognise its call. Its call to push justice into vengeance. To turn the caring stewardship of your responsibilities into jealous lordship over your possessions. Know the call so that when you punish wrongdoing you can fight the delectable pleasure of power that will wash over you, deep and clear, until even the most reasonable actions face the swift judgement of your cold hands.

Make no mistake, one of the greatest and simplest acts of evil in a world of fuzzy categories and blending colors is to draw a straight line into the sand and proclaim ‘whosoever crosses, even one millimeter, will face my wrath.‘ You will slay friend and foe alike, and never realise that it is not justice you seek but violence, even as the blood laps at your ankles.

---

You may disagree with my manner of thinking, and indeed I encourage you to do so! Think for yourself and look deeply into your feelings so you can work with them rather than being ruled by knee-jerks and shallow impressions. The intent of this post is not to tell you what to think, but to give an example of what one perspective of morality can look like, so that you may in turn craft one that fits your own thinking.

[exilethegame]

Okay so what does Marky mean when they say that we have to fulfill our destiny but we get a choice. Like the destiny is to be The Bad Guy(TM), so what kind of choice is that in the end if we want to be a good person? We're not really getting much out of this are we?

I’m just gonna use this ask to explain the deal as much as I possibly can, so people are who still confused/apprehensive, this is the absolute most I can say. 

It is purposefully vague. There's no "right" answer. You're not entering an inherently good nor evil path by agreeing to it no matter what the deal is. You will never lose character autonomy in-game except for scenes that require it (like when MC "snaps" by the fire and thinks they attacked Vethna-- but notice how that was a fake vision with no real consequences.)

I can tell you that MC will be getting plenty out of ???'s deal. You are not being screwed over. It's not a trick question. It's worded very literally.

“That's the deal they want to make. You follow your destiny and they'll grant you a final say in how it all ends...you just have to get there-- to that one final moment that everything depends on.”

I cannot explain the details of it but... it’s exactly what it says. In a very crucial moment you will be given freedom in how you decide for it to go. It’s, “give up freedom now, for freedom later vs. fight for freedom now and give it up later.” Some of you who are very optimistic or stubborn might pick the second because you hope that you might be able to fight for freedom until the very end. This may or may not be possible. Some of you might be cynical and agree to the deal because you really see no other way out of it. This may or may not be wise. But neither answer is right or wrong.

That’s all you get to know about it in the grand scheme of things. But looking for details that are given in-game in-text: 

"Fate has a plan for you already, and trust me when I say it's in motion. Me? I just want you to follow that destiny."

"But you said that no matter what I would go down the same path."

"Perhaps I should word this better...I wish for you to embrace your destiny. The end-goal, at least... say the word and I’ll grant it to you.” Freedom. 

Freedom wants MC to follow their destiny as in-- do not actively be fighting it. Don’t try to run in the opposite direction. Don’t do the opposite of what you are destined to do. Go along with it. “The end-goal, at least,” is stating that MC doesn’t need to agree to every little thing fate pressures them into doing. For example, MC is destined to be evil-- but that doesn’t mean MC is going to have to go against their moral code at every given decision. Freedom doesn’t care what MC does in the details so long as, at the end of the day, they are following their destiny and, in the grand-scheme of things, filling their end of the bargain. Yes-- that might require some questionable things to come up, but you will still never be forced into doing it. 

For example, let’s say you have the choice to kill someone. Freedom might tell you to fulfill the deal you have to kill them, but there will still be a choice at the bottom that says, “Kill them/don't kill them.” You will have wiggle room and be able to go against the deal a set amount of times without it being a problem, however, there will be very important + large consequences for repeatedly going against the deal. But you will never be forced into doing things.

This story is meant for the player to explore morality, not for me to trick you into a bad end. That would completely destroy the purpose. 

I think the problem is that a lot of people are used to knowing more than their character. They know that Choice A is good and Choice B is bad even if the character doesn’t, and they can then pick whatever choice they want based on what outcome they think fits the best. The point of The Exile goes directly against that. You know as much as MC does. MC is an unreliable narrator, but they are the only narrator you have. When you play the game, you are MC, not the reader who is playing MC. 

I understand the apprehension of not knowing the details. There have been a lot of RPGs that I played where they give you vague choices and one of the options ends up murdering every character and giving you the bad end. That is not the case here.

[ruby-whistler]

Why c!Dream should (and probably will be) redeemed

Hi! I’m bad with intros. You’ve read the title, so, let’s start with the definitions.

In this essay, we are considering the popularized definition of “redemption” instead of the classical one, which is, as per the Oxford Dictionary, “the act of saving or state of being saved from the power of evil; the act of redeeming.” That’s not however the way the word is used in fandom and media.

/dsmp /rp

The definition of redemption I’ll be working with in this essay is not forgiveness by the people who c!Dream has hurt, nor is it removing himself entirely from his past actions, but moreso the decision to change for the better and abandon destructive mindsets for himself and others.

A “redemption” in a narrative sense would be circumstances and a character arc that would allow that kind of healing and betterment.

I’d like to start this off by the fact that being “irredeemable”, in this sense, also doesn’t exist; redemption is a thing of conditions and choice, not of being allowed by someone else. You can’t gatekeep healing from people who seek it, just to be clear, and that even goes for people who have done terrible things.

Since I understand there is a lot of concern for c!Dream’s past actions, here is a post from people who are much more fit than me to speak on the matter, about the way in which they see a possible c!Dream redemption arc.

Another disclaimer, I am not going to be considering c!Dream only from the perspective of c!Tommy in this essay. c!Dream appears in other people’s perspectives and he himself has his own, unseen perspective. As a character, he is an individual person in his own right rather than just the antagonist of c!Tommy’s story, and so I do not have much concern for their narratives intertwining too much should this writing choice occur.

I’d also like to note that redemption is, in this sense, always a positive thing for everyone involved - someone who’s been prone to doing bad things in the past deciding not to do them anymore and try to change, or just simply heal enough to consider it, isn’t going to have a long-term negative effect in any of the characters, but rather the other way around. Healing is an unlimited resource, and the victims do not have to heal first for the person who hurt them to consider being better.

Here’s a well-written thread on Twitter that elaborates a bit to finish off this point, and let’s move on to actually talking about redemption in the context of the Dream SMP, and c!Dream specifically.

Why a c!Dream redemption arc is not only a good writing choice, but in this case the only good writing choice;

c!Dream, as we all know, has been subject to mental and physical abuse to the point of straight up torture by both c!Sam and c!Quackity (to different extents). He has been in indescribable amounts of suffering for the past 74 days at the time this essay will be published. That is six and something times the duration of the entire exile arc in canon.

Whatever the interpretation of his words in prison is, what is undeniable is first of all the fact his mental stability is absolutely crushed at this point, second that no human being could possibly ever deserve to undergo this, and third, his stay in the prison is showing off his humanity and making him out to be sympathetic.

Now, consider this; how would it feel if c!Tommy died at the end of the exile arc? Empty, there would be no catharsis to such an end, especially because of all of the hurt he’d gone through. Objectively, a bad writing choice.

Let’s compare, narratively of course, this situation to the prison arc. Even though I would never say one of them is “better” or “worse” than the other, since both are terrible and undeserved, c!Dream’s current state checks off all of the boxes that would make his death unsatisfying in the storyline; even if people want him gone, there would still be the dissatisfaction at the current build-up and why they even did it in the first place (it really wasn’t necessary to anyone else’s story to make him out as a victim, and yet they did) if they were planning to kill him off anyways. And since the prison arc is naturally meant to induce sympathy, even from an angst perspective it would simply not make sense within the themes and writing of the plot.

So, c!Dream can’t die, and he also can’t stay in the prison forever - the build-up must lead to something, which is logically a breakout. Great… what now?

Well, the Dream SMP prides itself in accurate representation of trauma and mental instability, specifically cc!Tommy and cc!Dream who have pulled it off incredibly during the exile arc.

Now, undoubtedly, after the prison, c!Dream is going to be just terribly traumatized- considering the writers’ past creative decisions, would it make sense for him to play the role of a dangerous, heartless villain in other people’s stories, while completely ignoring the logical fallout of what he’s been through?

In my mind, no. The most possible result is that cc!Dream is going to rightfully portray someone who’s been hurt so much he is broken, scared and tortured into submissions over months of agony and slowly stripping away of his agency, his dignity, his humanity. And that is… not going to be pretty, nor is he going to be in any way the same as before.

After everything, I’d be surprised if he can properly look at shears without shaking. That’s not villain behaviour, that’s the behaviour of someone who needs help.

Which leads me to another point, which is relatability. Believe me or not, there are people out there who heavily relate to c!Dream because they have been through things that allow them to see themselves in the character - abandonment, mental illness, etc. - or who have had destructive mindsets they have struggled to let go of in the past.

To them, as well as to the viewer, redeeming c!Dream could actually be a very good example, showcasing that anyone who has done bad things or has been hurt in the past can learn that it is possible to be better, to move on, to not be stuck in a loop but to actively seek help and then use that support to find the path to healing.

Making c!Dream a better person, who in a way, wins over his past, over his trauma, over the hurt he’s caused, and manages to actually get better… is inspiring, in a sense. It shows that you can abandon unhealthy mindsets, you can find a support group of people who care about you, you can make your life better simply by deciding to be better and then sticking to that, no matter how difficult the process.

This is why I believe that redeeming c!Dream would not be bad writing, but quite the opposite, and that the prison arc is an obvious set-up. Alright, but how does that work with the character? How could someone so widely hated mentally improve in such a seemingly violent and terrible environment? Would it even make sense within the context of c!Dream’s character so far? Well,

Why c!Dream has the capacity for healing and the Dream SMP the ability to provide it;

First of all, let’s remind ourselves that through c!Dream’s entire spiral he wasn’t ever directly given a chance to change. He was regarded as someone to defeat in order to accomplish a happy ending, or as someone who needed to be removed in order to achieve power on the SMP. Ever since the 16th, which is when the corruption of the character is the most obvious, there have been no attempts to reach out or to help him. I do not blame the characters for this - I am simply pointing out that since it has never happened before, we do not know how he would respond, and that, after everything he’s been through, any bit of kindness or compassion towards him will be a new concept he will have to learn to deal with somehow.

This point is especially driven home by the fact that both c!Quackity and c!Sam would often tell him he is a monster who deserves nothing but to suffer, and that what he’s going through is never going to amount to all the hurt he’s caused - basically removing any possibility for ever getting better (because by this logic, he doesn’t deserve support, and he doesn’t deserve to get better) from his line of sight.

He also hasn’t had a support system since shortly after the 16th, when his friends left him over c!George’s dethronement and made no effort to mend their relationship afterwards. c!Dream isn’t used to having allies and people on his side, but to being hated; again, wouldn’t that mean positive reinforcement could very well be all he needs to make the choice?

His bad mindsets - attachments are weakness, ends always justify the means, people will consider you a bad person no matter what you do - have been continuously proven right by his environment, even in prison. Any kind of subversion, plus an explanation as to why they are wrong, could be of great help to c!Dream.

Just another disclaimer; I do not believe c!Dream would change thanks to the treatment in prison, but rather despite it. His mental stability is non-existent at that point, and in order to get better he needs genuine emotional support from the people around him as well as to heal before he can redeem himself.

Alright, but… c!Dream has hurt a lot of people. Who would be fit to help him?

Let’s start off with the worst option and why it’s impossible the writers would even attempt this; c!Tommy.

c!Tommy has no responsibility to help or ever forgive c!Dream - not to say he could. The two, as it is, would drag each other down instead of helping in any capacity, and only make matters worse. The two of them shouldn’t even interact in the best case scenario - the best thing for both of them would be if they got enough healing and support individually that they could live around each other and not get their trauma or toxic habits triggered when interacting for whatever purpose of the plot.

So, if not c!Tommy (and c!Tubbo neither by extension), who could redeem c!Dream?

Well, he can’t do it on his own for sure. Being in nature with animals is nice, but further isolation from other people would merely help with the prison trauma, not with the state of his tendencies when interacting with others. He, once again, needs positive reinforcement from other people for him to heal properly.

There are two main options for this in my mind, and then there’s a few individuals he could also find comfort in, including people from both groups or those unaligned.

1) Kinoko Kingdom

From the people of this new country, c!Dream has never negatively interacted with c!Karl before, he has never hurt c!George and he hasn’t directly harmed c!Sapnap. Although the relationship with his old friend group could be difficult to rekindle, none of them have grudges against him that are too personal, and they have been canonically close friends since the beginning of the SMP, so it would be very much possible to rebuild burnt bridges. They’d be familiar, and with the addition of c!Karl they could be a good source of comfort for c!Dream after he either breaks out or is released from prison - just gotta convince c!Sapnap not to kill him first.

2) The Syndicate

From the Syndicate, c!Dream has never directly interacted with c!Nikki, and from what I know of her character she never seemed to be very affected by his actions - even doing his work for him when he was planning to burn down the L’Mantree. c!Techno is an ally who doesn’t have anything against him, and as for c!Ranboo, here is why I believe c!Dream being in the Syndicate could be positively influential on his character arc as well;

c!Ranboo and c!Philza have had a conversation about change, during which c!Ranboo made it clear he thinks everyone can change except for c!Dream; who, in his mind, is “too deep down the rabbit hole”. c!Philza replied that he thinks anyone can change if given enough time.

… you see what I’m getting at?

c!Dream has been implied to be an ally to c!Ranboo’s enderwalk state (or the state when he has access to his full memory), and hence would most likely not behave negatively towards him at all. While it might make it more difficult for c!Ranboo to deal with his own issues, it might also give him more motivation to get to the bottom of it as well, especially since he now has access to the person who, presumably, started this all. While this is going on, c!Dream would show himself in a much different light than c!Ranboo sees himin, which could lead to confusion, realization of the flaws in his own logic, and hence, positive character development.

Here’s a great post about why c!Techno as a character could be a great asset in c!Dream’s healing process & redemption, and why there is not much need to worry about him not knowing or finding out about c!Dream’s actions.

Of Kinoko Kingdom and the Syndicate, as far as I know, neither c!Tommy nor c!Tubbo have ever been directly involved with these groups, nor are they planning to.

Another important point to make is that, while c!Tommy needs to be kept away from c!Dream in order to heal properly, the same goes for c!Quackity and c!Sam in c!Dream’s case. While c!Quackity has high chances to interact with either Kinoko Kingdom or the Syndicate in the future, there’s an even higher chance, in that situation, that c!Dream would be offered protection, which is also important; there is no healing from trauma without the knowledge of safety, to some degree.

So, this was an essay as to why I think c!Dream’s recovery and redemption (one needs to come before the other, naturally) is not only extremely possible but also could be pulled off well and have a positive impact on both the characters, and the audience.

[etheriadearie]

Hello! Absolutely love your analyses! I'd spend breaks during work reading through a piece and I appreciate all the evidence (data as Entrapta would state) you use. I see many people boil Catradora down to being abusive (aimed at Catra) and it's just so hard to argue since there's so much depth to their relationship. What are your thoughts? How would you respond to someone stating so?

:: ... Reflections on the emotional healthiness of Catradora, on Adora's arc, and on SPOP as a morally complex story-

Hi, and thank you so much for this question, I know that some SPOP fans have this kind of reaction, and while I get why they feel bad, I strongly believe such a reaction was not the intended outcome. Which is my first point:

To anyone who feels this way, Hey!!! Noelle wouldn't hurt us like that, and even though we see hurtful behaviors shown in SPOP, this isn't part of suggesting that we forgive our abusers- Noelle wouldn't do that!!

SPOP is unique in that it explores trauma as seriously as it does… this show is so many different things: it's beautiful, it's fun, it's kid friendly, and it's really meaningful. I really, really believe that both Catra and Adora’s stories are meant to be a comfort to people who grew up in situations like theirs… (I, for one, find Catra’s story very comforting).

My second point is that Adora is as much a product of hurtful abuse as Catra is, and this includes that she has some very hurtful behaviors towards Catra, especially as we see the two of them together starting well before her defection. For example-

We all know Adora is a sweetheart, and for her to even behave in hurtful ways is so against her own best nature that it's a sign that she's not really being herself. It's also very wrong in terms of her ability to be She-ra, as Etheria chose her for her ability to love- she is deep down an incredibly loving and generous person, and love is her power. Yet, when we see her with Catra in ep1, she's acting hurtful instead. This- is where their relationship becomes so complex- because Catra really isn't being hurtful, and Adora has a history...

...And, this is a much bigger problem than just her relationship with Catra, because Adora is also hurtful towards everyone in her past life, she vilifies them and fights them- never once does she make an honest attempt to help her former friends- Adora simply makes an assumption that fighting them is a necessary hurt of her 'destiny'.

Yet... this 'destiny' is a lie, and we cannot ignore how Adora's arc from s1-4 ends with her barely avoiding destroying all of Etheria... furthermore, with Horde Prime finding them all as a consequence. Despite Adora's attempts at being a hero through s1-4, it ends with her having betrayed all of her former friends for a 'destiny' which was evil all along- Light Hope never meant to make her a hero, only to use her and the rest of the princesses as a weapon. This is because Adora had followed her 'duty' and therefore failed to be her greatest good as a hero of love.

Her decision of duty and all that goes wrong results because of how Adora believes in duty before all else, including and especially love. This false belief system, where she simply fights rather than looks to help her former friends, and acts hurtfully to enact this false 'destiny', is because of how Adora was hurt by her abuser. And it makes her actions wrong- she isn't valuing love, and, she is being controlled by others, some which are evil, some which are unfair- through her false belief in duty.

This concept of duty, which is so wrong, is what Adora's entire struggles are about- this includes her hero's arc. Her perceived need to serve a false 'duty' is the reason she justifies her hurtful behavior and neglects to help her former friends, it's the reason her s1-4 arc ends in disaster with her destiny being revealed to have been false, (and that she's been manipulated for evil), and, it's the reason she's so hurtful to Catra- betraying all of their love, while failing to make any true effort to understand Catra's feelings

We might not like Catra's reaction, or how terribly wrong the war is (... one which began before either of them was even born-), but Adora wrongly believes in putting her duty so far ahead of all else that she's failing to look deeper. Adora does break promises, and she does hurt people- she hurts everyone in her old life, not just Catra, with her hurtful and blind prioritization of duty ahead of love and all else- her belief makes her vulnerable to further manipulations. Her entire concept of duty before love makes her miss how she's hurting them, and, how she's wrong to do this... ... it results in so much pain. (-in fact, Adora ends up hurting EVERYONE with her stubborn belief in enacting a false destiny, as we'll discuss.) .

So, for the purposes of this question, we need to look at Adora's behavior, and how she's wrong to be so hurtful. Catra ends up very much more wrong- that's well documented- and which we all know- but, Adora is She-ra, Catra is not, and all of Adora's actions matter so much because she is at the center of all that happens as She-ra. And, she's got to learn to value love, going against the hurtful beliefs of 'duty' that her abuser ingrained into her psyche to control her. Even though Adora is trying to do her best, she falls short of what that actually is, and it's all because of her false belief that duty must define her. She is a hero of love, not a hero of duty or destiny- because destiny cannot power her, nor guide her. Love is what must guide Adora, because love is her real power... and as a hero of love, she cannot "leave anyone behind" who needed her help...

Through s1-4, by acting hurtful, Adora is essentially creating a false equivalency by equating evil upon all of her former friends, in a hurtful way which all but ensures further division and misunderstanding. She-ra is supposed to be a uniter, a healer- yet Adora is making no effort to do so. Adora is such a extensive product of abuse that she doesn't even see that she's doing so, and she has to wake up to this in order to become a hero of love...

:readmore:

Also, in part: their division happens because when Adora leaves Catra and everyone else in her former life behind she does so having not once fought for them (see Lonnie in the portal reality, below) - very much like how she didn't fight for her and Catra's love against their abuser. As She-ra, Adora needs to be strong enough to fight for ALL of them, rebellion and the vulnerable people in the horde who are trapped in its abusive system alike- yet, Adora doesn't do so- instead she takes a simplified view of morality, and through it, justifies abandoning her and Catra's love and fighting against instead of helping everyone in her old life. That Adora doesn't try to do better is already hurtful on its own. Adora's choice of such a hurtful path happens out of multiple complex factors, some deal with her history as a abuse survivor- but in reality, it's mostly because everyone else around Adora also is not being their best, either... ...more later

As for Catra- her choices, while very very bad, come out a reaction to Adora's history of hurtful behaviors- her inability to trust Adora is a trauma reaction, just like Adora's, yet, that reaction comes in response to Adora's continued hurtful behaviors: Catra is trying to be apart from someone who has constantly hurt her by naively following duty while showing no effort to understand how she's hurtful or to fight for their love. Adora did this within the horde by playing favorite to Shadow Weaver, and Catra feels that Adora must be misguided, just like she was before, for leaving her- instead fighting against her so willingly and vilifying her... lumping her in with their abuser as evil.

Catra was constantly abused, and watched on as Adora played favorite to that abuser while ignoring how Catra was treated. So, Adora was betraying Catra all along, and had no awareness of it- it shows that Adora has a blind spot- something which she struggles with throughout her hero's arc: such as Light Hope using her for evil. Catra felt as though she had already lost the friend she thought she had years ago, and then Adora's continued hurtful behavior following her defection, while making no effort to save their love, is what causes Catra to feel she must part ways with Adora. By Catra's reasoning, Adora must not really love her- why else would Adora be so ready to hurt her, when she made a promise to love her? Catra doesn't think Adora is actually being a 'good' person by leaving like she does- and Adora's hurtful divisive actions confirm Catra is right- by choosing divisiveness and a false destiny while devaluing their love, Adora is indeed falling short of being the hero of love which Etheria chose her to be...

So, we can see Catra's distrust and Adora's being used by Light Hope as parallel, because Catra is right that Adora is letting people manipulate her, just like she did within the horde- even if Catra is only basing this belief off of her gut feelings in s1. Adora ends up betraying her promises, and being used as a weapon by Light Hope, (and the rebellion, too) for the same reason: her belief in duty which blinds her to all else.

:: 🛑 There's also the matter of whether Adora and Catra are 'in a relationship' during the war. That's dubious- morality of the war aside, Adora divides their friendship for it, not Catra- so they aren't together anymore... And, as we'll discuss, Adora is coming up short of making the best decision by doing so. But, in regards to our question: what happens during the war between Catra and Adora should be considered separately, as apart from this time in their history, Catra was quite loving with Adora: both before, and then after, the war... and so it's important to not falsely equivalate Catra actions in this way- they are not 'together' (...again, morality of the war aside..) ....more later

We'll come back to Catra's motivations later, but here's the quick reference for the meantime- Catra doesn't do what she does out of wanting to hurt Adora, her love confession in s5 precludes that. And she also doesn't do it out of any great allegiance to the Horde- it's just all she knows, and she stays there because she's trying to live free of Adora- who is a constantly inadvertently hurtful person, as Adora had actually been betraying their love for many years. But: most importantly, Catra does what she does as part of her fight against their real abuser, whom Catra sees as the real evil in their lives. This starts as Catra taking down Shadow Weaver herself, and stays true within the meaning of her other actions through the rest of her arc as well. ...more later

All in all, this is part of how Noelle gave us a morally complex story with SPOP- it's not black and white like most stories we've seen (such as ATLA). The war, while terrible, has multiple sides to it, and with it moral grayness: The horde is wrong, yet isn't really made up of evil people. The rebellion is right to defend Etheria, but has a corrupted view of the horde where they summarily judge all horde as evil. That's an amoral belief, as we'll discuss, and it plays into Adora’s confusion over who she really must be, because their hurtful views block Adora's ability to be the hero of love she's meant to be.

... And, of course- the princesses are part of an evil super weapon, as naive enablers of a generational trauma so dark that it threatens them all... ...more later

Finally, the MAJOR PSA REGARDING ABUSIVENESS.. (and therefore this question)

Since we wish to discuss abusive relationships, we must recognize that there is indeed such a relationship at the forefront of SPOP, but it's not Catradora.

All of their bad behaviors- Catra’s isolationism and hurtfulness for self protection, and Adora’s hurtfulness in the name of false duty and vulnerability to naively trusting in false ideals set out for her by others, is because of how Shadow Weaver hurt them.

SPOP as a series is all about believing in love, (even in other character arcs aside from Catradora-) and it really is about both of their struggles with how their abuser hurt them, which they have to get past to embrace love. Their story is one about the how and why we ourselves sometimes struggle to accept love- many people struggle due to having been hurt like they were- and through them, Noelle tells us a story of our own lives. 💢(minor trauma warn to readers, altho, I promise nothing too dark in this post). It's the real truth of Catra and Adora’s arcs: that they both act out hurtfully due to how their abuser has hurt them, and as such, they both contribute to their division, not just Catra. And, they both go through long arcs of self realization and healing to be better from how they've been hurt, to be their best selves and so they can be together again.

This journey of self realization is what allows Adora to start being a real hero in s5, and accepting Adora's flaws in her actions before then is an important part of understanding her arc, because, as She-ra, everything Adora does matters- no matter how unfair what's done to her is, she's got to be her best, and she has to trust in love in order to win in the end...

That concludes the "short" explanation, but, since abusiveness is such an important issue, we'll cover some specifics it in greater detail. This- is Adora's hero's arc- her and Catra's love IS her hero's journey, because she's not trusting in love in how she acts through s1-4.

So, apologies for how long this will be, but we'll be covering the following subjects as part of this discussion-

1- how and why Adora improperly continues hurtful behavior that started within the horde after she finds the sword, which Catra reacts to, and how Catra wasn't hurtful before then,

2- how Adora could have used She-ra as a liberator to help her former friends, and how the rebellion also being corrupt is why she misses seeing it,

3- Adora's self realization of her truth of love, and how it allows her to step past false destiny and manipulations,

4- how Adora was being a false hero during seasons 1-4 as told through Horde Prime forcing her to fight chipped Catra to save her during Save the Cat,

5- Catra’s wrongness and why she believes she's totally alone against her abusers evils,

6- how the love we see in s5 was always the truth.

Back to the topic of Adora’s hurtfulness, as we see it in ep1, that goes so deeply against her better, loving nature... (part 1)

From the moment we see Adora and Catra together in ep1, it's obvious that their relationship has already become very unhealthy-

This is almost entirely unhealthy on Adora’s side, not Catra’s, as every time Adora speaks to Catra, she does so with a tone- she's rude to her, she's hypercritical of Catra's actions, she's incredibly judgemental, and she acts as if superior to her.

Yet, Adora had become the puppet of their abuser- Shadow Weaver, making the mistake of trying to fulfill the false expectation of being perfect as she was told to do. And in doing so, her naive trust in fulfilling that duty made her an unintentional enabler of her own abuse, as well as Catra's.

So, all of Adora's judgments out of supposed superiority come out as false: she's devoted to a woman who means only to destroy them, it shows that she really didn't know what was going on with Shadow Weaver's abuse.

In contrast, when we look at Catra’s behavior, it's clear she thinks Shadow Weaver is evil. And, in terms of how she interacts with Adora, it's obvious that Catra is actually still being a very loving and supportive friend to Adora- we only see any of her negativity emerge in response to Adora’s own hurtfulness. As things stand in ep1, Catra isn't abusive, if anything, it's the opposite (although I wouldn't use that term).

So, we can start to see that Adora has an entire history of deeply hurtful behaviors towards Catra- starting well before the moment Catra refuses to follow her, or before her decision to forsake their love go to war against her following “Promise”. There was no good reason for Adora’s hurtfulness- it was done in respect to a false duty made for her by their abuser.

This false belief of superiority is another way in which we can see that Adora was failing to see the true evil that was happening as she was playing the favorite- she blindly believed that being good, as measured by an ideal set out for her by their abuser, was her only way of solving her problems.

Yet, Adora always had a choice- her assumption shows a failure of reasoning, because fulfilling that duty as she was told to never would have resulted in anyone being safe- much like her trying to fulfill Light Hope's ‘destiny’. Shadow Weaver only made Adora think that as part of her plan to use and then destroy her.

Likewise, Adora always had a choice to intrinsically value her and Catra’s love over the corrupt duty forced on her by Shadow Weaver- she could have kept the faith in their love, with Catra. Instead, Adora became hurtful towards Catra...

Adora was a bad friend- and her being as such in the name of false duties is the same reason she ends up being used as part of Light Hope’s corrupt 'destiny'. Also, being a bad friend is a canon part of Adora's hero’s struggle, (spoiler warn, LotFP) as being a bad friend can also be seen in how Adora acts towards Glimmer in s4: (as Bow says in s4ep8: "...it's hard being friends sometimes... So why am I the only one who's willing to work at it?". (In LotFP, Scorpia outright calls Adora a bad friend, and rightly so..)

In regards to Adora’s failure in choice- she and Catra weren't children anymore, and standing up to Shadow Weaver was always a possibility. She could have refused to play along in a system where Catra was made to suffer while she was given praise. And, the real kicker is: judging by how easily Catra takes down Shadow Weaver without Adora’s help, it wouldn't have even been that hard.

This shows Adora really was guilty of blind devotion to Shadow Weaver, because Catra had been prepared to step free of that abuse, probably for years. So, when Adora leaves Catra, devaluing their love and instead vilifying and falsely accusing Catra of being evil like Shadow Weaver (which is an immensely hurtful thing to do after the years of torture Catra suffered), Catra decides to step free of her abusers control, while also stepping free of Adora’s continued hurtfulness.

So, we see that Adora has a dangerous level of blindness to the deeper evils that people mean to use her for, which we can see in other places throughout her arc, such as with Light Hope’s plans for her. She can't even see how she's been corrupted.

Catra, in contrast, shows us she knew all along about their abusers' true evil: she shows her awareness by her little rebellions against a corrupt system where she was constantly being hurt. Catra refused to stay weak, and prepared to protect herself from her abuser all along. Yet, all Adora ever did was act out towards Catra for refusing to conform like she did...

Let's jump forward to when Adora finds the sword, and we can apply Adora’s naive belief in enacting duty, while being hurtful in the name of it, to that decision as well:

Adora accepts the sword, and her new ‘destiny’, with blindness and devotion- believing it to be her ‘destiny’, she willingly accepts that it comes at the price of hurting Catra as well as everyone in her old life as part of fulfilling it.

This ‘destiny’, or duty, is actually nothing but a lie made to confuse Adora by Light Hope and the First Ones- it's just a manipulation to use Adora for their evil. Believing in her 'destiny', Adora then makes no real effort to understand the darker truth behind what is really being asked of her, instead trusting in that 'destiny' and betraying everyone in her old life with her hurtfulness, instead of helping them, in service to this ‘destiny’. (...more later)

Adora in effect swaps Shadow Weaver for Light Hope, (the rebellion also uses Adora as a weapon in a hurtful way, which we'll discuss), and in doing so Adora acts hurtful to someone she loves, she agrees to hurt and therefore fail a whole group of people who deserve better from her. Adora has no right to vilify them like she does, after all, she was one of them herself. Also, her vilification shows no concept of her own hurtfulness and previous role as an enabler in that system.

Sure, Adora could complain that it wasn't her fault because she was being unfairly manipulated, yet Adora continually shows that she is vulnerable to those very same manipulations, again and again, throughout s1-4. It's all to do with her false assumption of fulfilling duty at any cost.

... and it brings Adora’s entire supposed ‘moral awakening’ into question, because while she's right to stick up for the citizens of Thaymore, her entire hurtful and superior attitude towards Catra while she does it is false: it's just like how Adora was hurtful towards Catra as part of playing her role as the favorite of their abuser within the horde. She was blind to the real evil that was occurring.

She therefore has no business being so hurtful towards Catra throughout s1, even IF she didn't know about the continued tortuous abuse Catra suffered because of her. All that Adora’s supposed righteousness over her ‘destiny’ actually shows is that she’s blind to what is really happening- in the past, and then again when Light Hope uses her for evil.

Also, fun fact: Adora’s supposed 'holier than thou' newfound morality isn't even her own: we know she's vulnerable to accepting others' expectations- in this case she's accepting Glimmer’s hardline view that all people in the horde must be evil. Adora takes this closed minded viewpoint and uses it as she tries to enact her false destiny all the way through s1-4, never once making an effort to help her former friends.

All in all, Adora falls short of being a real hero by doing this. And, Adora really does take things too far in her stubborn pursuit of her destiny (LotFP spoiler warn). She's so willing to hurt Catra, and all of her former friends, and is so far removed from the hero of love we see in s5 by doing so. Catra is right that Adora isn't the friend she used to have- Shadow Weaver's abuse changed Adora into something hurtful instead. (In LotFP, Adora strait up attempts to terminate Catra’s life; ...in contrast, Catra only ever tries to capture Adora...)

Catra, meanwhile, has no reason to trust Adora when she tells her she's defecting because of Adora's past history as an enabler of her (their) abuse. If Adora could hurt her, while being devoted to her abuser, what reason does Adora give Catra to think that anything will be different with her sudden new devotion to the rebellion? The answer is none, and as Catra had to look out for herself to protect herself from abuse, she won't trust Adora. Meanwhile, Adora can't even make an effort to understand Catra's feelings of being hurt by her actions...

Also- at least Catra had a plan- which we know by how she takes down Shadow Weaver to be free of her continued abuse. Nor, also, does Catra just want to leave everyone in her old life, accepting the rebellions belief that people like her are only worthy of being vilified and condemned by the princesses- Adora's self righteous judgements just makes Catra think that Adora is being hurtful and naive. Adora, meanwhile, had no plan- and even after her 'destiny' is revealed, she's still playing into the hands of her abusers while trying to fulfill her 'destiny'. It doesn't matter if Adora doesn't mean to, she's still got to be better than letting corrupt people use her for evil. She needs to learn to not be so naive.

The best theory for the hurtful way Adora behaves- by being so hurtful while ignoring the deeper truths- is that Adora has a deeply engrained hurtful world-view due to how she was hurt by Shadow Weaver, towards her abusers purpose of using and sacrificing Adora. Because of how Adora was treated, she believes that duty always comes at a cost, and that it will be painful- it's a corrupted, painful way of seeing the world where she just assumes pain comes as part of her reality of being charged with duty.

This is false, it's just what her abusers (Light Hope, too) want her to believe, and waking up to how this corrupt concept of duty is used against her by her abusers is something that must happen for Adora to be able to move past it, so that she can start being a hero of love like she's meant to be. She cannot let naive concepts manipulate her into being hurtful, and cloud her from seeing her path of love. Adora in s1 sees none of this- she only sees her concept of duty which is wrong- she does get wiser throughout s1-4 which sets up for her heroic reveal in s5, when we her true She-ra form.

So, Adora's fighting Catra and all of her former friends, instead of looking to help or understand them, is a presumption that it is a necessary cost of her duty. Upholding her 'duty' was always painful for Adora, and so she thinks hurting her former friends is 'just how it has to be', because Shadow Weaver conditioned her to expect that duty would always feel painful. Her hurtful world view assumes evil on them all, while making no attempt to do better. That's not heroic- Adora is accepting enacting a lesser evil as part of 'duty', just like when Catra was allowed to suffer within the horde while she was given promotion. A real hero faces evil at it's source, by simply vilifying her former friends and breaking her promise to Catra, Adora is being no hero of love...

Which brings us to our next topic: why Adora fails everyone in her old life, and how she could have done better to help the people trapped within the horde’s abusive system. (Part 2)

Adora’s hurtful vilification of everyone in her old life, while never finding a way to help them, really is a failure to all of them. In particular, we can see how much Lonnie feels this way, much like Catra does-

Not finding any way to help them was always a failure of Adora as a hero, something which happens because of her trauma belief of 'duty' before all else, and how her new allies in the rebellion wrongly influence her to believe that all horde are evil. Their corrupted, hurtful views makes Adora miss an obvious possibility:

Adora could have used She-ra as a liberator, rather than as a conqueror.

I realize that may sound like hyperbole, but, there's plenty of evidence of how Adora fails her former friends, and even more about how the rebellion fails the people of the horde. ->see the following pics-

So, we need to talk about why Adora never tries to help her former friends, in order to open a path to freedom like she was offered because she was She-ra.

Even though the rebellion may have the moral high ground in this story, they still fall short of being their best with their derogatory views of the horde- it further divides themselves from what are essentially fellow native Etherians, it surrenders all further thought to what is essentially hate. One result of their flawed views is how we see its Glimmer that activates the super weapon: as she says “we’re the good guys, remember?”. Are they really being their best, though?

Glimmer and Angella have pain from the war, which gives them a corrupted view of the Horde where they summarily judge all Horde to be evil out of their pain. These are derogatory views which are based on their own personal feelings of injury, which leads to their views, as leaders, crossing over from needing to protect themselves, to enacting a unnecessarily hurtful exclusion of a group of vulnerable people who needed their help.

This isn't to say that their pain isn't real… it is, it just doesn't excuse an isolationist, closed minded view of their situation. Surrendering further thought out of emotional pain simply is never healthy, they take their feeling so far as up never show any understanding to any individuals within the horde, or to try to help them. As the leaders of free Etheria, this is a failure of their station as those leaders.

So enters our sweet Adora, who, while she does always mean well, is a lifelong product of abuse that makes her highly vulnerable to blindly going along with others' expectations of her. Afraid to fail her new allies, Adora accepts Glimmer and Angella’s ‘us versus them’ close minded view of the horde as evil as her own, she ignores her deeper knowledge of how this isn't true she has from her time as one of them. Because of it, Adora never considers how they deserve to be given the same chance to be better that she was granted because of her Princess powers.

In all of SPOP, Adora is the only person who is ever actually offered a chance to switch sides. This is a failure that happens because of the derogatory and closed minded views which predominate the rebellion's beliefs- it's no secret that they hate horde soldiers, and that no forgiveness is ever offered. It's prejudiced and amoral.

In SPOP, the Horde isn't evil in the black and white sense that most stories present their villains. They are a combination of bad, but also good: we can see that good in the stories of Catra, Scorpia, Lonnie, etc- even Hordak, the supposed leader of the evil Horde, shows he can be better and gets a redemption.

So, Adora’s intimate connections to people from her former life always demanded more understanding from her than just being crushed under She-ra’s golden boot. ... Not that anybody in the rebellion is actually interested in considering this possibility- and Adora is far too concerned at failing in her new duties as She-ra to stop and see it, and so challenge those views.

It was another missed chance to help people, rather than divide, that Adora misses seeing due to her traumas- her addition to their ranks should have been a chance to change the derogatory views of the rebellion for the better, to open a real path towards freedom for people within the horde who feel trapped by its abusive system, so they can find safety from it like she did when she switched sides.

It's a way in which she could have helped her former friends, and it might even have lead to resolving the war more peacefully- losing soldiers in such a way would have weakened the Horde, possibly even seen its collapse… also, Catra would have seen that Adora was no longer giving in to a blanket derogatory view of people like her... -> ->note, Adora's childhood best friend helms the Horde, and yet, Adora still cannot find common ground ? (This is because of Adora's own divisive and prejudiced behavior towards Catra. Also, Hordak is barely the leader of the Horde- as he hides in his lab and only emerges to makes snide comments.....)

Quick aside: yes, Adora does make a few weak offers of this in s1 to Catra, but always coming after Catra had been further abused because of Adora’s actions, and always with Adora acting in her superior way that shows no understanding of how she's hurtful. It makes Catra doubt Adora’s sincerity.

As it turns out, this derogatory view of the rebellion is a much larger failure: it fails the people of the horde, but very importantly, the way their hurtful views affects Adora equals a personal failure of them all to Adora.

What's really so terribly wrong with the rebellion's close minded views is that we never see any quarter offered to the horde: there's no opportunity for such people to be better- no choice given to them to step free of their abusive situation, and to prove they don't really stand for that. Not having that offer in place is an immoral act, and an abandonment of duty.

Glimmer and Angella’s presumption of evil upon all horde with no path to forgiveness in itself traps those very people in the system which forces them to act in evil ways. War is never an easy thing to solve- but presuming the enemy as evil shuts down all possible further understanding, and perpetuates the violence: as leaders of their world, Glimmer and Angella needed to do better.

And, their hurtful views are also a enormous personal failure to Adora, because it frightens Adora and leads to her continued self hurting-

Adora accepts the rebellion's close minded views that are forced on her, she throws herself into battle continuously trying to make up for her failure to be perfect. She's so afraid to fail them that she acts in compromised ways- such as looking to sacrifice herself, or hurtfully protecting her concept of 'destiny' at the cost of brutalizing her former friends in battle, never looking to help them.

It's a hurtful way to live, and Adora does it because she's so afraid to fail her new allies as a former child soldier from the Horde, and so, their views hurt her- Angella and Glimmer's views that being from the horde is synonymous with evil are a personal failure to Adora, particularly from Angella: as a mother, she could have helped Adora to understand her new role as She-ra, and to help Adora understand her trauma.

Instead, Angella judges Adora and treats her like she's evil unless she fights as she's told to... even though Adora, as an orphan, never had a choice in being from the horde. This is an emotionally hurtful failure to Adora as a friend, (Glimmer) and as a mother (Angella).

::This is also the beginning of a series of failures, one which ends with everyone being hurt, because of Adora’s betrayal of being a hero of love, in what could be considered a butterfly effect-

-> Adora takes the hurtful, close minded black and white view of morality of the rebellion, and applies it to her relationship with Catra- she ignores their intimate history and her promises, and implies that Catra must be evil like Shadow Weaver at multiple intervals following her defection. That is a failure of love, and of their lifetime of their intimate friendship with each other.

Catra had been hurt her whole life, she watched as Adora turned from her as a friend to be the enabler of their abuser. She's had enough of being hurt in this way, and Adora isn't even making an effort to understand why Catra feels so hurt by her actions. So, Catra wants to be free of Adora, who hurts her.

Catra fails Adora as a friend- ending the generosity of love we see her have in ep1-2, that she kept giving despite Adora being so hurtful towards her. Catra is done with Adora’s double standards, she agrees to fight the war against them all, since Adora so seemingly wants it as part of her new life and a 'destiny' which ends up being fake, anyways.

And so, the rebellion's close minded views creates Adora’s failure to Catra, Catra goes to war against them, and so, the one enemy they simply cannot defeat is created by their own close minded views that the forced on Adora...

The rebellion fails Adora -> Adora fails Catra (plus all of her former friends) -> and in reverse, Adora fails ALL of them -> rebellion alike, by failing to make the choice of love, of trying to make an effort to preserve her and Catra’s love, she turns Catra against them all with her lack of faith in their love, choosing to act hurtfully instead. It is a failure of being the hero of love that Etheria chose Adora to be...

A chain reaction that starts with Glimmer and Angella’s own hurtful views ends with EVERYONE being hurt- it amplifies the war, because, Adora is at the center of all that happens, and isn't being the hero she should be... you could ever say it causes a butterfly effect...

Still, Adora had a choice to be better.

Just like she had a choice to stand up to Shadow Weaver in the horde. Just like she had a choice to not turn on everyone in her old life, judging them in such hurtful ways, while never looking to help them. And, just like she had a choice to value her and Catra’s love, and through seeing how her actions hurt their love, seen that the duty she was so blindly devoting herself to was wrongly making her hurt people that deserved better from her.

Adora in s1 has so little emotional presence to be able to see her own hurtfulness- it's due to how she was hurt- that she places her concept of duty so far ahead of love that she can't even see the value of a lifelong relationship of love she had with Catra. Why would Catra think Adora cares about her, when she so casually betrays her, infers evil upon her, implies that Catra must be like their abuser ?

If, Adora was a more emotionally present person, she would have recognized that she needed to find a better way that didn't just brutalizing everyone from her previous life. And the rebellion itself doesn't help her, they just place their unfair expectations upon her. Her trauma makes it hard for her to see why love is important- she can hardly see the bond of love that she has with Catra... so, she doesn't choose love out of false belief in duty and fails to be the hero she's meant to be.. and everyone suffers for it.

In the end, Angella and Glimmer are not in themselves blameless for creating the situation they face with Catra’s determined war against them, because as leaders of the rebellion, they had been failing the vulnerable people in the horde all along.

As the saying goes, hurt people hurt other people. It's true in life and it's true in SPOP. Mostly people hurt each other because of trauma, and in SPOP everyone's trauma adds to the sadness of the war they fight for 4 seasons, horde and rebellion alike, not just Catra... or Adora. It's not the war they needed to fight, it never was, and as such they are all mostly caught unawares when their mistakes in this way results in Horde Prime finding them- ie- the true enemy they all should have been preparing to face...

... Which, it must be acknowledged, results from Glimmer's choice of trying to use a despicable super weapon to win a war- one in which her own bad attitude hurtfully influences Adora and therefore helped to amplify. Glimmer's act nearly destroys them all, while exposing their location to their true enemy all along...

Glimmer’s naive decision results in so much disaster that it really makes you wonder if the rebellion ever deserved to win the war with the way they conducted themselves...

I'd argue no…

Glimmer’s act, and how the princesses are caught so unaware of their true enemies- (ie, Horde Prime and the First Ones) shows them to be so naive that they likely would have inadvertently activated the Heart in time, and thus destroyed themselves, anyways.

They failed to be better, acting in way that added further trauma to the system. (..this is likely really a commentary on the chaos of war in general) And, the princesses really have NO excuse for being caught so unawares like they were- they don't know their own world's history- there's no real excuse for this. Especially when we see that it was indeed possible- Shadow Weaver uncovered much of it as part of her evil plans to attain more power. (Shoutout to Bow’s dads, who made a heroic effort to understand it, while starting from scratch- 🥰)

Add to this that Glimmer’s corrupted choice to activate the heart happens much as a consequence of her listening to, you guessed it, Shadow Weaver, and we have all the proof we need that the princesses don't understand their own “hubris”.

Long story short, everyone messes up the first 4 seasons, nobody is being their best- and so, Adora has to go to great lengths and great personal risk to herself to repair all of their previous mistakes during her s5 arc. She does this in a very beautiful way- she does it through the power of her love- *not* out of destiny, or duty, or even sacrifice. (Part 3)

Adora was always a hero of love, love IS her power, and she should have seen it sooner. Trauma is what blocked her.

A bit of sympathy for Adora:

Even though I'm talking about how she's wrong, Adora constantly found herself unfairly forced into bad situations by others' expectations put on her, some of which are evil, others are at the least unfair and corrupted by hurt. So, she ends up making some wrong choices… yet she's She-ra, she's still got to be better than that.

And Adora shows great courage in getting free of her trauma cycle to trust in the power of love instead of duty, like she was always supposed to do. How she gets past this trauma mentality is by simply learning to reconnect to her best self- and her deepest feelings of love and generosity that she was chosen to be a hero for by Etheria.

... Nevermind the First Ones-- Adora was still chosen by Etheria, as she was as a loving child, before Shadow Weaver ever managed to hurt her and make her into something else.

And, Adora finds this truth within herself with almost no help from anyone with her best interests at heart- Angella tries her best for ~3 minutes in the portal reality, to make up for her own hurtfulness towards Adora. (..Bow and Glimmer do help her some, but are very much involved in their own concerns..) Adora is a hero, but not by destiny… love is her truth.

Now... Adora’s burden as She-ra is indeed incredibly unfair on a personal level, yet as She-ra, she's still got to be able to make the right choices to be able fix the big problems she faces, and making those choices must be guided by love, not by destiny or duty.

So it doesn't matter that she's not responsible for the First Ones original evil, for which she was innocently born into- Adora simply won't quit trying to make it better, because that's who she is at heart. Trying to make things better is always a core motivation for Adora, even though she broke her promise of love to Catra. Love was always her guide, and her strength, that's why Etheria chose her, and in late s4 into s5, we see Adora begin listening to her truth of love.

So, Adora’s hurtfulness with Catra from s1-4 is just the most obvious symptom of how she's struggling with a trauma mindset that blocks her from being the true hero she's meant to be. This means that Adora and Catra's relationship issues and separation was always the real story of Adora's hero's arc, because Adora failed to look deeper and save their love because to her flawed concept of duty.

Being that hero requires not surrendering her reason to false judgements which require her to be hurtful to people who deserved her love and understanding, never mind if Catra makes everything worse with her own hurtful reactions. Adora always needed to be better than that, and being able to be so understanding of the moral complexity of their situation isn't easy, but, she learns to do it. Again, Catra isn't She-ra: Adora is.

::So, SPOP is one big story about people learning to not let their shitty attitudes control them, and of getting past them in order to become better people. Adora had a bad attitude in s1: it made everything worse, she turned on her former friends because of it. Catra’s attitude might be the worst of them all, but they all learn to be better- Glimmer, Angella, Mermista… the list goes on. Everyone needed to be better, and in s5 they are- it's what gives them the power to overcome Horde Prime together.

... Adora rescuing Catra is such an important part of her hero’s arc because of how she is a hero of love, but it's also important because she's making up for her previous mistakes of passing hurtful and false judgements unfairly upon her former friends... and against Catra. We also see Adora’s true powers emerge as she saves Catra, because she's trusting in love...

Speaking of Save the Cat… (part 4)

Still, if you're at all doubting that Adora struggles with being a false hero from s1-4, it's all well confirmed as Adora faces Horde Prime during Save the Cat in order to save Catra…

When Adora shows up to save Catra, and to save their love, Horde Prime pits chipped Catra against Adora, making her play out their entire history of hurting each other for false reasons in order for her to save Catra. This is meant to be a sly and forceful character assasination by Prime of Adora as a false hero, and as a bad friend. He wants Adora to feel weak, that her failures as a hero are so total, and her lack of love so hurtful, that it's much too late for her to fix her mistakes.

Because of his belief, he really isn't expecting Adora to succeed… yet, he doesn't know that Adora has found her truth of love…

He starts out by calling Adora a false hero, rubs it in that she's a First One, part of an evil empire that he easily defeated. And then, as she battles against chipped Catra, he tells her “you will destroy the ones you love in the process.”

This is supposed to be a scathing rebuke of Adora’s actions through s4. One where Adora, and the princesses at large, played into the hands of the First Ones manipulations, where she willingly hurt Catra in the name of her false destiny.

He reminds Adora of all of her failures, and how as a First One she's from an evil race of beings, she's totally at his mercy, just like the She-ra’s before her. He throws Catra at her, tauntingly, offering the chance for her to kill Catra, like she tried to do before in the service of Glimmer and Angella's corrupt expectations that she deliver them from the horde at any cost to herself.

Moments before Glimmer destroys the server, and Adora and Catra get their chance to talk, Prime rubs it in just how much Catra had to suffer for her sacrifice to protect Adora- “she was scared in the end, and she suffered”. A cruelty Catra shouldn't have had to suffer, but for Adora’s long standing history of betraying her for false duty.

Adora tells Catra she's not giving up on her, something she did through the first 4 seasons of SPOP with her blind righteousness towards Catra, never stopping to consider how she herself might have been wrong, instead stubbornly trying to enact her false destiny.

Prime compels Adora- it's too late, the damage is done, he's all but assured to win. She is behind enemy lines, and weak.. “then you are a fool, you cannot stop Horde Prime… he will reign triumphant… it is destiny”.

Her and Catra finally get to talk to each other when the server is destroyed, and as Catra reaches out, nearly taking Adora’s hand, wanting to go home again, he steals it away and taunts Adora one more time: “some creatures are destined only for destruction”- like it always was… Catra was meant to fail from the beginning, to die. And Adora was the tool of her abusers, she threw Catra aside as part of their evil plan to make her fail for their corrupt purposes. He sends Catra plummeting to her near death..

Clutching Catra’s dying body to her chest, Prime tells Adora “it did not have to be like this”. He's telling Adora that it never had to be like this, all of her betrayals of Catra, her struggles in vain against her false destiny, were done in a naive blindness that only ever made everything worse.

Everyone was made to suffer because of her naive belief in that 'destiny', she's failed, and if she's lucky, perhaps Prime might save Catra. By submitting to his will, maybe she can spare Catra her death... or if not... perhaps Adora can at least forget her mistakes like Catra has been made to do…

We all know what happens next. Adora is not the naive girl who played by the rules of her abusers, she's stronger within herself and knows she cannot abandon love. She's there for Catra- she's going to find a way to love her better, even if that's hard to do. As she says to Prime: "you miscalculated”.

And luckily for her, Catra, a true fighter for her own sacred life, surviving against a lifetime of death threats and near death experiences, is able to hang on just long for Adora to be able to save her from the brink of death..

None of this makes Catra’s actions during the war ok, but keep in mind that Catra shows great remorse for all of her mistakes. She's learned her lessons, too… and her remorse and then total confession of love hints that Catra never did what she did as part of wanting to hurt Adora..

Still… what really makes Catra fight against Adora like she does? After all… she had a choice, too, just like Adora did... (part 5)

Catra could have chosen to sympathize with Adora's views at the battle of Thaymore, after all, Adora was clearly right that what was happening to the civilians was wrong, yet Catra didn't.

As it so turns out, Catra isn't very impressed by some suffering of people who have lived their whole lives more privileged than she has, not when every day of her life had been a crime- surviving against abuse and torture with nowhere to run or anyone to turn to, Adora included.

Her life was that of an orphan, singled out for total destruction by their abuser, and as an orphan, the only way Catra knew for sure she could get free of that was through her own actions. She can't rely on anyone liking her or helping her because of innate magical powers like Adora does.

So, putting her life in the hands of the people who have only ever seen her as an enemy makes no sense, she's been hurt too many times before, including by Adora herself, to take Adora’s word for it.

But, she at least hoped that Adora would have chosen her out of love. Adora's willingness to abandon Catra so totally, and then continuing to behave so hurtfully in all of their further meetings, seems to tell another story.

All of Catra’s anger, and her worst actions through s4 can be summed up in one thing, of which never had to do with her wanting to hurt Adora:

Catra believes that she is totally alone in the world against her abuser, that nobody else properly sees Shadow Weaver's evil or will deal with it. And so it's up to her to do what must be done.

Everyone around her is an enabler in some way: Hordak didn't care to take a role in the Horde's everyday, only cared about results. Glimmer and the princesses become the worst kind of enablers of Shadow Weaver from s3 onward by taking her in, giving her total freedom in all but name. (And then there's the matter of Glimmer letting Shadow Weaver channel her power in s3ep4, which she uses to torture and nearly take Catra’s life yet again...)

But the saddest example is how she thinks Adora is a naive enabler who will never learn any better. Catra feels that way because of Adora's hurtful behaviors towards her, and how Adora couldn't even choose Catra out of love, instead vilifying her and hurting her as part of her false belief in duty.

She's wrong about this- Adora sees Shadow Weaver’s evil, too, she just doesn't know what to do about it. Adora had hoped that leaving her old life behind would free her from Shadow Weaver's corrupt influence over her, and yet... we see Adora struggle with how she was hurt right up until the end. Still, if she had just had one decent talk with Catra, it could have cleared up so much hurt between them so much sooner. (but they never did...)

Adora, as we see her in ep1, is a person that is so incredibly naive that Catra doesn't even need to feel that Adora ever intentionally enabled- Adora's blind devotion to Shadow Weaver's plan, followed by total willingness to abandon their fight against their abuser, while instead assuming evil upon Catra while hurtfully lumping Catra in with said abuser, means, as far as Catra could tell, that Adora was never going to choose to help her at all.

Adora’s behavior in the horde was so atrociously bad, that her continued hurtfulness after leaving seems to confirm Catra’s worst fears: that Adora really didn't care about her, and only cared about her duty.

If true, Adora having had no plan to help her would have made Adora's continued naive enabling of Shadow Weaver a clear and present danger to Catra's life. Was playing the favorite to their abuser really Adora's only plan? Would she have just continued to enable Shadow Weaver right up until she pulled off whatever betrayal she had for the two of them, killing Catra, or them both? It sure would seem so.

Add to this the fact that Adora just ends up having enabled a different evil manipulator as part of her deserting her, and Catra is done expecting anyone to ever help her with the realities of her abuser. If the princesses want to call her evil, while sheltering her abuser and further enabling Shadow Weaver’s evil, she won't feel bad if they all get hurt along the way. And Adora is naive, something Catra makes abundantly clear during their fights.

Catra does a lot of dangerous and hurtful things in the name of this belief. But, this is a trauma state Catra learns to wake up from, because she's lost just like Adora is, and her trauma mentality is destructive to everyone around her.

It leaves her with nothing… no moment of happiness, nobody to call her a friend, a life of absolute loneliness with nothing to live for except her drive to punish her abuser at any cost, with little to no chance of forgiveness for her violence. She learns every lesson the hard way- that no matter how much your abusers continued existence hurts you, there's simply some things you just do not do… you're no good to anyone if you surrender your heart to that kind of anger.

Catra does show deep remorse for all of her worst actions. And, she's lucky that Adora saves her. (even if she's a bit pissed at Adora for risking herself like that… 🥺😥)

But, in regards to whether she's abusive… in s5 we don't see that. Catra does act out a little bit while coming to terms with why Adora saved her- she didn't think she would ever get a second chance. From that moment onward we only see love and devotion from Catra, she doesn't want to live in her hurtful ways anymore, even if she still has no idea how to feel safe with her abuser running wild (Adora does see and her best to protect Catra from Shadow Weaver in s5). Catra can't keep living like she was, so living to help Adora makes much more sense.

My final appeal to people who have a hard time accepting Catradora… (part 6)

:: We should all strive to not let our personal hurt block us from appreciating people's situations, and understanding them. I know it may seem like I'm targeting Adora harshly, but that's why I went to such lengths to show how her issues play out in the narrative. Adora struggles to be her best self, like Catra does, and accepting this about her doesn't mean we need to love her any less than we already do!

Adora is absolutely precious, as is Catra… they never should have been hurt like they were- Adora as the ‘hero’ and Catra as singled out for destruction because of how she loved Adora.

They were always sweet girls, like the innocent and loving children we see them as in their earliest memories, before that day when Shadow Weaver hurt them so badly.

The beautiful love we see between them in s5 is what they always deserved- they should have been allowed to grow up with innocence and then fallen in love, but instead they got hurt because of the corrupt intentions of others.

They both spend the arc of the series trying to get past how they've been hurt, to get back to each other. And how they do that is by remembering the way they loved each other before Shadow Weaver was ever able to hurt them so much and drove them apart.

That, was always their truth, their love is good and pure like it is in those childhood memories. They were always supposed to love each other, and their division was a mistake that happens out of how Shadow Weaver and others have hurt them.

Both of them show tremendous courage in working hard to be able to step past how trauma controls them to be better, it's not just Catra who has to do this.

Adora does, too, because she's got to trust in love, not duty or destiny or sacrifice to be incredibly strong in the ways she needs to be to do the really scary things she has to do- such as stopping the Heart, and of solving a millennia old war that was never her fault, plus more. Love was always what makes Adora strong enough to do the very hard things which she has to do.

When Catra is given a second chance in s5, she sees that Adora is being hurt, and how nobody really helps her… they just expect her to do whatever has to be done. And that's wrong, because it’s unfair and it hurts her. Catra knows Adora has been hurt all of her life, she just didn't realize how much...

Catra may have been made to suffer because of Adora, but she survived that, and so she heals herself to be free of it as best she can in s5. And, Catra realizes she can help Adora, really really help her, to do the very hard things that are expected of her… Catra puts everything she has into helping Adora in s5. It's what Catra always thought she'd do, as the wiser child that knew how evil the world really was. She just got all mixed up inside, fearing that Adora would never really love her… and that was wrong of her.

Catra isn't really expecting redemption.. or even for Adora to return her feelings of romantic love back to her in the same way that she feels. She's a bit a of a pessimist, and has been left waiting her whole life to see someone show care and real love to her... But, all she has left is her love for Adora, and so she gives everything she has to her.

I think that's really courageous of her, and when she sees Adora is failing in the Heart chamber, she makes a dazzling series of romantic moves during the dream and the kiss- to show Adora that she's loved, that she's wanted, and that she's not alone. Brave, romantic moves which Catra didn't know for certain that Adora would reciprocate, but... she was still willing to do it, she loves her too much to let Adora fail, and die, while feeling so scared and alone. So, Catra does everything she can think of to let Adora know that she's loved. Catra deserves some credit for that.

We see that it works, as Adora has always loved her, too. Adora was just too blocked from expressing her love by her trauma. And Adora’s final test, as a hero of love, is quite simply to accept that she can be loved, not as a hero, but for who she is...

... I don't know what else to say to anyone who can't accept their love, or at least I won't here. I think it is the most beautiful love story I have ever seen.

In large part this is because it's not simplified. Catra and Adora’s love isn't just assumed to be kismet, they have to work hard to be together. They are both really bad communicators, and had to learn to talk to each other. This is true with most relationships, and in doing so they become truly loving partners to each other.

... So, it might have been nice if there had been enough time for Noelle to give us even one more kiss between them... but, I think Noelle wanted to tell us a very mature, grown up story about overcoming adversity to embrace love. And I think that's really commendable of them.

Sorry that took so long… Anyways, Catradora is the best ship, I don't make the rules! 😅🚢 ✨ I realize I won't be able to convince everyone, but that kiss was beautiful, was it not?? So, I hope my words aren't a total loss, and that maybe I can convince just a few people to feel like I do.

Love is power. 💞🏳️‍🌈☺️

:: Hi!! - I will gladly answer anyone's questions, and feel free to let me know what you thought of this. Thank you.

Also, if you've read this far, thank you for that- if you enjoyed it please consider giving it a ✨reblogg✨ or a like!! *humble thanks 🙇*

Peace and Love,

~EtheriaDearie 🕊

Some final notes:

Yes, I do realize these are fictional characters, but it's easier to talk about them this way- they are the nuanced creations of very creative people, meant for us to enjoy… in that way they might as well be real, because they have so much to teach us-

Got time to read something short (yes I mean it!!) that's mostly pictures? Check out this cool theory about Adora's dream it's real quick!! 💞🏳️‍🌈

-all hyperlinks are on tumblr. Here's a list of my other analyses-

LotFP = Legend of the Fire Princess. It's canon, important, a whole lot of fun, and worth checking out!! 10/10 😉

-note: I will not use the term 'toxic' because of how I feel the word carries cultural connotations which detract from discussion. However, discuss as you wish! I have no issue with the word or the concept, I just seek to be very clear in my meanings -

Finally, here's a link to a YouTube video of Adora saying Catra's name (fast forward to 0:40). You can really hear how her tone changes through time, in particular in s3 right before Catra pulls the switch, as Adora is coming to terms with her mistakes as She-ra. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WRT3D3n_I