#spop review

[tippenfunkaport]

2023 in Fanart

I am not immune to trends.

I ordered myself a cheap drawing tablet last December 26th and didn't really get a chance to play around with it until mid year, but I made a fair amount of fanart after then so here's everything I posted in 2023, roughly in the order I made it.

Thanks for sticking with me while I figure out what I'm doing and a Happy New Year to everyone!

[historyhermann]

Kiff Review

Kiff is a musical comedy animated series by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal. They are known for their work in the animation industry, either script writing, storyboarding, or voice acting. This post will have spoilers.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the twenty-seventh article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on March 27, 2023.

The plot of Kiff focuses on a young flying squirrel named Kiff Chatterley (voiced by Kimiko Glenn), who is friends with a mellow bunny named Barry Buns (H. Michael Croner) in a magical land, within the mountains, known as Table Town. Both go on adventures in and around the town.

Like other Disney series airing this year, Kiff is aimed at kids and families. This is clear from the format, similar to many episodes of Amphibia, Milo Murphy's Law, and Phineas and Ferb. Each 22-minute episode is divided into two 11-minute segments. In typical Disney fashion, there is a musical number in almost every episode.

Apart from the animating powerhouse of Disney Television Animation, a well-known animation studio, Titmouse, is producing the series. The same studio is known for series such as Cleopatra in Space, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Midnight Gospel, Q-Force, Inside Job, Pantheon, My Dad the Bounty Hunter,  The Legend of Vox Machina, Fairfax, and Chicago Party Aunt.

Many of the voice actors in Kiff are well-experienced. Glenn previously voiced Paperstar in Carmen Sandiego, Katherine-Alice in Welcome to the Wayne, Tomiko in Elena of Avalor, and Nomi in Dogs in Space, to name a few roles. Deedee Magno Hall, who voices Deer Teacher in the series, is best known for voicing Pearl in Steven Universe. Furthermore, James Monroe Iglehart and Lauren Ash, who voice Kiff's parents, prominently voiced characters in series such as Tangled, Helluva Boss, Elena of Avalor, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Keen listeners might recognize Rachel House, voice of Barry's mother, or Nichole Sakura, voice of Barry's sister. Both had prominent voice roles in Moana and OK K.O.!: Let's Be Heroes. Personally, I was familiar with voice actors Katie Crown and Rhys Darby because they voiced characters in Cleopatra in Space. The former also voiced Ivy in Amphibia. Furthermore, Darby voiced a variety of characters in Milo Murphy's Law, We Bare Bears, Welcome to the Wayne, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Infinity Train. It was great to hear Vella Vowell, who voices Candle Fox, again. I remembered her impressive voice acting as Princess Mermista in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and as the No Tattoo Barista (which later turned into a CBD Monster) in the lesser-known Magical Girl Friendship Squad.

Kiff snagged the well-regarded Eric Bauza and Tom Kenny. From my years of watching animated series, I was familiar with Bauza as Scoops in Ollie & Scoops, as well as Kenny for two roles: Ice King in Adventure Time and Yancy Fry in Futurama. In this series, Bauza voices Reggie and a scrupulous TV producer named Roy Fox, while Kenny voices multiple characters in the series. A stand-up comedian named Josh Johnson also voices Barry's brother, Harry.

The show's animation is expressive and colorful. However, it pales in comparison to Amphibia, The Owl House, or Adventure Time. In some ways, Phineas and Ferb is put together better, as is Milo Murphy's Law. All in all, the show is a bit funny, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Drama is more a strong suit for the series than comedy.

The first twelve episodes of the series are double-episodes. They introduce viewers to the characters, allowing you to get a feeling for their lives. More than anything, they make it clear that Kiff is not serialized like Steven Universe, Tangled, or Milo Murphy's Law (especially the second season). Instead, each episode seems in its own world, without being connected to another. If some rumors are correct about upcoming Hailey's On It! and Iwaju, it appears that Disney series are moving in this direction. This is evidenced by the fact that the recently aired Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur uses serialized storytelling.

The first twelve episodes of the series is is a double-episode. They introduce viewers to the characters, allowing you to get a feeling for their lives. More than anything, it is clear that the series is not serialized similar to Steven Universe, Tangled, or Milo Murphy's Law (especially the second season). Instead, each of the episodes seems in its own world, without being connected to one another. If some rumors are correct, it appears that Disney series are moving in this direction. However, the recently aired Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur uses serialized storytelling as does the upcoming Hailey's On It! and Iwaju, if reports are correct.

Kiff has some elements reminding me of the Futurama episode openings, like fake adverts at the beginning of each episode. At the same time, the series is different than what has come before since the show creators, Heavens and Smal, who voice characters in the series, are from Cape Town, South Africa. As a result, their life-stories are undoubtedly integrated into the series itself. Furthermore, the show's directors include animators for Black Dynamite, 6Teen, and Amphibia, with this career experience enhancing the show even more.

The series emphasizes the importance of acceptance, friendship, self-worth, and notoriety. The latter is shown in the extreme by Roy Fox, who makes trashy reality shows in order to profit from people's misery. In a manner similar to the focus on education in many anime series, Kiff seems to imply that education is important to achieving your dreams and that school shouldn't be skipped, no matter what. This stands diametrically opposed to what is shown in Birdie Wing: Eve, one of the show's protagonists, is a terrible student, but remains at the premiere golf academy because she is a sports star.

There are many other themes focused in Kiff. For instance, the episode "Career Day", when Kiff and Barry get a part-time job at city hall, implies that mass records destruction is fine as long as you cut through the "red tape". This contrasts with commentary about overly technical bureaucracy in Hilda and Futurama, to name two series. Such a negative theme in "Career Day" is offset by episodes which accentuate family togetherness and honesty.

As a person who has reviewed media with libraries and librarians in pop culture since July 2020, and with a MLIS degree, it should be no surprise one of my favorite episodes of Kiff was "Club Book". In he episode, Kiff learns the value of quietness in the library after turning the library into a club scene. I thought it was interesting that the librarian, voiced by Aparna Nancherla, is made more relatable than most. Her character, Miss Moufflé, somewhat bucking stereotypes, while reinforcing them at the same time, as she shushes people but also likes souffles.

Similar to other series, the value of libraries as a place of knowledge and learning is affirmed in Kiff. In some ways, the episode reminded me of the "Quiet Riot" episode of The Replacements, in which the show's protagonist, Todd, causes the shushing librarian in charge of the school library replaced by a rockstar. However, he later regrets his decision, resulting in the original librarian returning to her job.

Currently, Kiff is almost half-way through its series order of 30 episodes. It is hard to know where the series will go from here. Even so. I am more optimistic about this series than Hamster & Gretel, which has fallen flat, despite the fact that Dan Povenmire is the show's creator. Instead, the series has episodes somewhat mimicking absurdity and, even hilarity (to an extent), which are present in Phineas and Ferb. The latter, in fact, was recently renewed for more two seasons.

Even so, Kiff will probably never measure-up to the strength of four-season animated magical comedy powerhouse of Phineas and Ferb, a series even mentioned in an episode of Better Things, a comedy-drama by Pamela Adlon, who voiced some characters in the series. Despite this, Kiff will chart its own path, perhaps different than what has come before. After all, both creators are said to be a "brilliant creative team".

Although Disney has recently removed release dates from the upcoming Tiana and Moana series, clearly Kiff is part of a trend by the company to feature more diverse series. This year is bound to bring series such as Iwáju and Hailey's On It!, while there are others in production such as Cookies & Milk and Primos.

It is further possible that Disney is producing Molly Ostertag's Neon Galaxy, a series reportedly about a trans princess. In any case, diverse series are on the horizon for Disney, especially more than HBO Max, a network which has been struggling to find its corporate identity since David Zaslav became CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate. It is said that the streaming service has Iyanu: Child of Wonder and Lumberjanes in production.

The first 12 episodes of Kiff are currently airing on Disney+ and all twelve episodes have aired on the Disney Channel. Four new episodes will air on the Disney Channel on April 1st and later be added on Disney+.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

everyone on Reddit being asked what their least favourite She-ra episode is and at least two people commented on the tonal dissonance of Signals being 50% trash and 50% the best episode in the season, it’s great

[tooningin]

It’s done

I finally present… my spop season 5 review!

This is the first time I’ve ever done something like this so feedback would be highly appreciated and help me on future projects

@spop-romanticizes-abuse @spopsalt @anti-spop @anti-catradora-collection @antispopausandstuff @my-nitpicking-self

[masccatgorl]

Non-Review Rambling ok finally read this way later than i thought i would! it's fic review time! this'll be the first time i've actually posted one of these, i was always afraid of like, hurting a writer by doing it? if that makes sense at all. anyway, any writers please message me if you'd like a review deleted/to be added to my do-not-review list! TL;DR The furry adora fic is great, it's filled with interesting thought processes that bring new insight to characters. the pacing is stellar as well, and it's a very enjoyable one-shot read. if you've ever felt out of place because you are different from others, give it a read! Review The furry adora fic is fantastic! I've always really loved how n7punk writes different species in modern AUs, and I think this is shockingly the first in-universe fic i've read by them?! author if you read this i'm trying to work through them all all but i have work :(. Anyway, this fic is no different, and it's a perspective on the consequences of having different species that i honestly totally hadn't considered! > "It takes her months to realize all the small things her… misunderstanding effects, and honestly she never stops realizing because there’s always some memory lurking in her subconscious that is thrown in stark relief by her new knowledge."

Honestly this line kinda threw me for a loop, because i've felt the same way about things before (and still do, kind of the point), obviously i didn't think i was a cat (as much as you may not believe me from my blog) but for very different parts of my life. The pacing of the fics is immaculate as well, its contents are spread about through multiple short "sections" that spread a fairly long period of time, and it does a great job of not dwelling on anything too long while also providing great amounts of detail.

Also, the art linked at the bottom is adora-ble (sorry). go read the fic!

Disclaimers: - I suck at writing and my reviews are rambling and run on sentence filled and i'm not sorry it's a thing i do for me more than anyone else! - I love the youtube channel cinemawins so much, and i try to channel that energy? i'm just here to gush about things i like and think other people would like! - i don't give a rating like 1/10 or anything, because different pieces of writing hit differently depending on my moods, and like the above, everything is a 10 for someone!

Pairings: Adora/Catra (Catradora). Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018).

Rating: T. Chapters: 1/1. Words: 6.9k.

Summary: Adora knows, when she looks in the mirror, that she doesn’t look like Catra, but she doesn’t think any of them really look like each other. There’s so many different cadets in the Horde, it takes her awhile to realize there are more differences between them than the natural difference between two people. What she does know is that it’s totally unfair that Catra can purr and she can’t even hear it all the time. (Or, Adora is not a magicat and she’s the only one this hasn’t occurred to)

[dougydoug8797]

This YouTube Video is 100% Accurate about season 5 of SPOP

[weaselbeaselpants]

Making my own post and not linking OP because, genuinely I don't want them to get harassment for this

It's to the person who made this post

Full disclosure, for the UMPEENTH time: I don't give a rats ass about what Lily thinks about fictional characters. I used to. Then I met/knew/still know genuinely nice and critical people who hold the opinions Lily has but aren't Lily. I have friends who hate Steven Universe for justifiable reasons, same with SPOP. I personally dislike a lot of Friendship is Magic decisions and so do my mutuals like me. That's not the problem. Perhaps the reason people know OF Lily Orchard is through her -bad- media analysis, but it's not why people come away hating her, and it's DEFINITELY not the reason people are listening to the testimony of her victims and being rightfully horrified.

People talked of and about Lily Orchard for the same reason sane people clown on Mr. Enter; she's toxic and abusive. She's a bully and her 'idgaf' attitude is bad for fandoming and for critical culture. There's 'problematic' like critikal or breadtubers and then there is "lol fuck the haters who all want to r@pe me anyway, they're all n*zis anyway including the bipoc folks who I'm sure aren't real bipoc anyway. Now I'm going to police how other people take back slurs and how 'queer' is inherently offensive. I'm the REAL VOICE OF JUSTICE."

I called Lily the worst of "anti" fandom rhetoric because I mean it. She is a 'social-justice warrior' in the meanest ugliest sense of that word -ugly enough that basically everyone who's been called that by actual chuds will describe her as one. She talks over other people doing social justice, polices how other people use it, and only really cares about how it affects her. Frequently when people leave her fandom it's because Lily and her crew very cruelly shooed them away for not fitting Lily's exact interests and opinions 100%. Frankly I kind of hate that her attitude is labeled as 'radical' or 'anarchonistic' because she's 'unapologetic'. No. Real anarchists are people like decolonizetheleft or heritageposts --those two are both very blunt and quick to bite back if you throw them bullshit, but they also are not vitriolic and know that people are complex even when they post stuff other people wouldn't. Lily's not even a good call-out machine. She's nothing on HBomberGuy or D'Angelo Wallace or Shanespear. I'm still mad at her, not for SU, but how she responded to other critics of SU who told her not to joke about Rebecca Sugar being a fascist. She told them, some of them Jewish people, that they're just butthurt at her ripping and not her trying to talk over other people. I'm still mad at her for siding with a n*zi until she realized that looked bad for her and her cruelty towards other lgbtq people over how they use the word "queer".

She's been doing this for YEARS. She dropped in on old brony discourse this exact same way and it fucking sucked because, you know, people in fandom or the show itself DID do shitty things. We needed genuine help weeding out the bad actors around us; it sucked that one of said bad actors was trying to speak for us. Now imagine this but amplified to a woman with some native heritage trying to talk down how other people see and talk about THEIR cultures. It's always been a massive headache.

Britt has also been around for years though and so has all the evidence and trails left of Stockholm before Lily decided to redact it completely. Lily absolutely wrote that. She absolutely wrote cp. I was there for back when she still proudly referenced it.

"Why don't you move on and stop obsessing?"

Believe me I'd LIKE to. It's that extra element of worrying behavior that goes beyond annoyance with a youtuber like Lindsay Ellis or Quinton Reviews that has kept me always watching from the sidelines. If I be an "anti" (frankly, every proshipper I've ever met who's seen the receipts from Stockholm has the same take as me, so idk) for having 0 tolerance fictional material of children than it would be hypocritical not to hold 'one of my own' up to those standards especially when she DOESN'T own up to writing it when I know for a fact she did.

Fuck lousy chudheads and Vaushsluts and general KFcreeps who think any of this is funny and 'just lolcow behavior' and misgender Lily while they do it. Fuck transphobes.

Transphobes, chuds and ''stalkers'' are not the people ILoveKimPossibleALot brought into her video. Op, I genuinely hope you get away from Lily's influence. You deserve better. For now though I'm putting you and anyone else who unironically stans Lily on block. I am done hearing anymore excuses for this woman's character. I can't hear that anymore than I can't hear actual bigots use Lily to besmerch others -other trans folks, other liberals, other disabled people like me. I'm done.

[now-that-i-saw-you]

Catra's Arc: a review

I've been rewatching SPOP and I'm currently on season 5 and I have some thoughts. While rewatching, I took mental notes on whether I liked Catra & her arc or not, and trying to understand the anti-Catra side.

Well, I liked Catra a lot and I enjoyed her arc, but I can see where her storyline falls short so this is a review of her arc the way I see and understand it.

The show starts with Catra and Adora together. We immediately know they're best friends and we also immediately know that Adora is the prodigy, more serious one whilst Catra's a troublemaker. Adora finds the sword, joins the rebellion, offers Catra to come with her and Catra says no. That part is so frustrating to watch because we don't know why Catra refuses, why would she care? she doesn't seem to care about the Horde's mission so her refusal is just stubbornness and being annoying.

As the series progresses we learn more about Catra's past and, most notably, her relationship with Shadow Weaver. Shadow Weaver is an abusive mother-figure, she manipulates Adora, she humiliates and hurts Catra. Shadow-Weaver clearly prefers Adora and sees Catra as a the black sheep & bad influence. What Catra's actually fighting Adora about is the love of a mother-figure, more than anything else. Now I think the problem with the show is that there weren't enough flashbacks to Catadora's childhood. I think we needed more scenes of Catra and Adora talking about having more power and no longer being under Shadow Weaver's rule. We needed more scenes showing how the Horde soldiers are taught that the princesses are evil. And we needed to see Catra being an outcast in the Horde and how Adora is the only one who's kind to her - that way there's ground for Catra being envious of Adora and also Catra feeling like Adora's the only family. All of this could explain why Catra's jealous of Adora's friends and along with their wish to escape Shadow Weaver, could explain Catra's need for power.

Still, the series shows that Catra doesn't actually enjoy her evil deeds. It's all just a facade. The more we see of Catra the more we see that all of her daring, sarcastic behavior comes right after almost having a breakdown. Season 3 gives us more information about Catra and Shadow Weaver. Catra is still desperate for Shadow Weaver's love, but the latter betrays her. At the end of the season Catra is crying when talking to Shadow Weaver about the fact she left her for Adora and then Shadow Weaver tries to kill Catra. I don't think I could respond normally to this situation so I don't find it surprising and horrifying that Catra's reaction is to open the portal that will destroy the world. She's self destructive! Trauma does that to you.

This is also the point where Catra commits her worst crime - sending Entrapta to Beast Island. This is a children show, so there's not gonna be much on-screen death but Catra is basically killing Entrapta. And I personally think that you can easily tell that Catra's doing it out of self-hatred, destructiveness and a bit of madness rather than a one-dimensional thirst for power. Especially because later on she has a nightmare about it, indicating that she regrets it and I think also indicating she regrets everything she's done.

Then season 4 is a very low point for the Rebellion, they are losing every battle, shit's bleak. So you'd expect to see Catra happy but she's not, she's completely losing it. She doesn't sleep, she lashes out on everyone because she doesn't actually enjoy any of this. She's lashing out because that's all she can do, because no one taught her anything else. And I think that this is her punishment and turning point, because after her plans (basically) succeeds and Horde Prime comes, she doesn't cooperate with him. Eventually she decides to do one good thing in her life and sacrifice herself to save Glimmer. She had the opportunity to let Horde Prime destroy Etheria like she tried to do with the portal, but she regrets what she did. Later on she even has the opportunity to stay brainwashed by Prime and not feel any pain, but she chooses to fight it and feel.

Now on season 5 it seems more and more like Catra's learning to undo her toxic mindsets, she tries not to lash out and respond out of fear and anger. She apologizes to Entrapta, the person she hurt the most, and I personally think that this is also supposed to symbolize her apologizing for all of her crimes. She even tells Adora that she's trying to work on controlling her emotions (with the alien-cat). I know it comes in this kind of unserious script, but this is a children show and I think that, despite that, Catra's genuinely trying to work on herself.

We can argue about whether this is a good message or not, but I think the point of the show is that people aren't black and white and anyone can be redeemed/forgiven. Shadow Weaver is power-hungry and has no loyalty, but she really did want to protect her planet and she really did love Micah. Hordak is an outcast, he is in pain and grasps onto power because it's the only thing he can control. Glimmer nearly destroys the world because she reacts out of anger and grief and fear. They're all forgiven by the plot, Catra parallels all of them.

[swearyshera]

Slowly making my way through the inbox, here's today's big bunch!

@freedfromthegalactichivemind Snap! It's not beyond the realms of possibility, we shall see what happens with my other ideas for continuing the series.

I can write them down for you! It reads...

Following the events of the finale, life changed for everyone on Etheria.

Scorpia was officially handed her kingdom back. Upon seeing the state of it she yelled "What motherfucking thundercunt did this?!" She is still apologising.

Within a month of Prime's defeat, Perfuma held the biggest Trans Pride parade Etheria had ever seen. Prince Peekable still did not turn up. He was later found dead, but Perfuma insisted that this was not an excuse for failing to support trans people.

Frosta was finally able to return to Hell. The other demons had not changed at all during her absence and were still massive dicks. She has now made this realm her permanent home. It has more cake.

Mermista initially failed to respond to our request for comment on how her life had changed. When we reached out again, she said "It's fine, I guess, whatever." Her smile indicated things were a lot better than 'just fine'.

Sea Hawk celebrated the defeat of Prime with a series of 'victory fires'. The resulting court cases found him guilty of arson and sentenced to a total of five years in prison. Mermista officially pardoned him after a lot of convincing.

After finishing Sweary She-Ra, Entrapta was tasked with writing the SPOP movie. It has been hailed as the greatest movie of all time and received glowing reviews from all critics. It never received a release outside of Etheria.

Hordak finally achieved his dream of taking over Etheria. There is now a branch of Greggs in every town and village on the planet. He and Entrapta created a unique menu of tiny sausage rolls.

Shadow Weaver's remains were returned to Mystacor. The burial site is now a popular gender-neutral bathroom.

Double Trouble opened an acting school. They closed it a week later after realising no-one could be as good they are.

Bow used his spare time to focus on inventing more tech. His inventions have changed the everyday lives of many Etherians. The French horn alarm clock was not one of them.

Glimmer now spends her days collecting antique weapons. Though she has no need to use them, they are maintained in perfect condition... just in case.

Catra went through a fuckton of therapy at Mystacor. Things may not be perfect but she's happy. Also, Castaspella told her several embarrassing stories about Glimmer as a child. Catra has them saved up for when she really needs to piss Glimmer off.

The first thing Adora did after defeating Prime was take a well-earned rest. Well, she slept for a few hours. Well, I say slept, she lay down on the bed for a few minutes. What can I say? Adora is still Adora.

@hi-im-uur It's been my pleasure! There are a good few thousand strips to go through, so enjoy it all over again!

[spopsalt]

I got 100 followers!

What should I do to celebrate?

[weedle-testaburger]

IKR, I remember back in the day he seemed alright and then in one video he started talking about how much the 'crazy left' scared him and downplaying the hate speech of Brexiters and was I just like please shut the fuck up you don’t know shit about this and it has nothing to do with what you're reviewing

finding out that mr enter deleted his deviantart because he couldn't block any more people for calling him out about opposing lockdowns and masks is so funny to me for some reason

[aprillikesthings]

so these somehow got lost in my notifications (they're from March 23) but these were all left as replies on my re-watch posts for the She-Ra episode Shot in the Dark

And @1023sstuff ...you vastly misunderstood the point of the post???? It wasn't meant to be a serious review??? It was literally intended to just be squee and dumb jokes???? I know I didn't put the disclaimer on EVERY post of my rewatch but I did put it on a lot of them: they were, in fact, intended to mostly be squee and dumb jokes. I originally started my rewatch to refresh my memory of the show for a fic I'm writing. There's a few bits of something closer to meta or analysis on some of the posts, or talking about how some of the plot points relate to my own life and experiences, but that wasn't the point of these posts.

If you wanted to make your own Serious Post about that episode or the show in general you're free to do it on your own blog, but it's extremely bizarre to find a random post that clearly isn't doing a serious critique and then criticize it for....not being a serious critique.

"The person only seems interested in what the characters are experiencing" Yes, you are correct. That was in fact what I was doing.

Edit: lolol in the first half of my rewatch post for that episode I actually SAID that anti-spop blogs need to get a life and go touch some grass, the IRONY

[vivaciouscynner]

Heartbreaking spop-anything didn't make it on the tumblr year in review

[georgewiman]

Might be time for a rewatch of Nimona

Can we just declare ND Stevenson a UN heritage site or something? How's that work? Also I want to review SPOP but not sure where to start.

[markanddebbie-protectionprogram]

hi! i saw your intro post about your favorite characters and wanted to ask; what do you like most about dupli-kate? i found her hard to like after she had sex with rex when he was dating eve, but maybe i didn’t see the more likable or even redeemable traits after that scene. just curious!! :)

[gasps excitedly] oh my goodness i love this questionnn, uhhmm i think purple characters are all really cool. they're easily an instant fave of mines tbh (claire from trollhunters, daphne from scooby-doo, starfire from teen titans, entrapta from spop, amethyst from steven universe, miko from transformers prime, eulalie from nevermore)

i can't focus on one specific thing that i like about her the most cause she wasn't as exposed to us audience as other side characters were like eve and cecil 😭😭 so uhhhh,,,, i hope you don't mind me dumping all these thoughts on her ahadhsahajshaha

i really liked her in the flaxxans episode!! when robot gave instructions to everyone in the team, he told kate to keep doing what she's doing. i love how it implied she's a competent hero. you'd often see teen heroes be portrayed as too eager and/or too reckless at that age (which isn't a problem, more of an observation), but she's a very focused and efficient in what she does.

also i'm on her side, she didn't do anything wrong on purpose. she seemed genuine when she saw eve look hurt and told her that rex told her that eve was "seeing invincible now" 😭😭 this one was on rex. i firmly believe she wouldn't have had sex with rex if she knew he was still involved with someone, she would have done that wayyy earlier in the show if that wasn't the case (and you see him screw it up too with saying that kate's copy is not even "the real kate" 💀)

and in the battle beast scene, she didn't have moments to really shine there like rex and black samson. but it does show, that along with shrink rae, that when it comes to team fights she acts as a good support :3

spoiler time!! this is about her in the comics, i haven't read it but i got some info about her from my moots <33 this is a pretty mild thing tho, nothing concerning the plot: she's one of the best dressed there hehe. i really like her style so i hope she gets to wear casual outfits in season 2

okay now this is pretty spoiler-y so you can skip this part just in case. if you go back to the episode that showed the mauler twins in their cells, you'll see a guy that has copies of himself in one of the cells. that's multi-paul - and he's kate's twin brother!! she got the trope of "hero character with a villain sibling". even when paul is a villain, they both care a lot about each other. special mention to our local paul ceo: @spellbook-gayboy btw!! kate and paul wrote letters to each other even when they on different teams.

UPDATE: i rewatched s1 and that scene where samson reviewed where they went wrong on their last fight with the lizard league, kate was the one that was openly humble about it. rex complained how overbearing samson is with the ordeal but she didn't turn down samson's points. she's open to criticism and is not afraid to let rex know that he could do better too.

[babyspacebatclone]

Outline below for my story based on my “Who opened the portal that brought Hordak to Etheria?” theory in SPoP.

Potential relevance to another topic I’m discussing elsewhere re: poorly handled character arcs slash treatment of traumatized characters in the series.

But mostly because I really, really do want to write this, and getting this done while it’s on my mind helps.

This fic is to be written in third person with a Queen Angella focused pov (aka observations are filtered through her bias, the only internal thoughts seen are hers).

I’m also now plotting out a second chapter from Hordak’s pov, because it turns out I figured out another connection these two have! Other than this expanded crack-fic idea I now hold as my personal fanon Angella had to make the horrible, painful choice to create a stable time loop and bring her own personal devil and tormentor to Etheria to prevent the planet from being consumed by the Heart.

Anyway, at the start of the fic Hordak and Entrapta have contributed research and tech to a device that eventually is able to bring Angella back from being between dimensions after the portal disaster.

It opens with Angella waiting to talk with Hordak alone, mentally reviewing every single reason she utterly hates him and every damage he has done to herself personally and her planet.

Suggestions for here welcome! 😊

Hordak enters, polite and professional.

Angella mentally reviews everything she’s been told about how he has acted since the defeat of Prime: submitting to a trial of his crimes, living with Entrapta, working with her towards the repair of Etheria, and taking an apparently reluctant leadership role of guiding his newly freed brothers to independence.

Outwardly, she acknowledges his contribution to her rescue.

Hordak similarly acknowledges this, but independently notes he did not do it for her sake.

Angella appears slightly shocked at this.

He clarifies that he has developed some warm feeing towards Adora (this would be explored in the second chapter, it’a a continuation of their finale scene and because I happen to like papa Hordak fanons. oh and shared angst you’ll see), and is aware of the impact the lose of Angella has had on her and her friends, further depressing Adora.

Hordak claims he performed his duty partially towards the betterment of Etheria as a whole, but personally worked diligently for the sake of Adora and by extension Glimmer.

He is glad that Angella is returned, but he believes she deserves his honesty about his motives.

Angella is silent for a moment, mentally reviewing her time in-between dimensions, although the audience does not get any descriptions at this time.

Then she speaks: “I was the one that created the portal that brought you to Etheria.”

Hordak is as shocked as any unspoiled reader would be, and cannot respond.

We now get the beginnings of scenes from Angella’s time in-between, when she first regained enough of her sense of self to recognize she could see all alternative timelines.

She starts with a timeline where Hordak does not come to Etheria.

It ends with Light Hope guiding an eager and willing - and utterly naive - Adora to initiating the Heart of Etheria.

Angella asks Hordak how much he knows about LH, and he admits he has not been told much. He acknowledges, however, he is aware she had something to do with the project of turning Etheria into to a weapon, which required Adora as the She Ra to activate.

Angella explains briefly how LH would have been able to manipulate basically anyone on Etheria into allowing an impressionable and vulnerable Adora to be trained by LH.

Throughout her explanations, we also get more details from her memories of these timelines - the more that is shown, the clearer it is that Angella didn’t just witness these timelines but to an extent experienced them.

When Hordak remains unconvinced the Horde was the safest place for Adora, Angella reveals what is admittedly fanon but ties in what I want with this overall fic.

That LH could - with admittedly time, effort, and motivation, but unquestionably the ability to - directly manipulate not just an First Ones tech on the planet to her own ends, but anyone attuned to a Runestone through them.

Anyone.

And we get the memory of Angella herself raising Adora, preventing her from ever meeting Madame Razz, and then gladly guiding her directly to the Sword and LH, proud and serene in her “mission” right up until the end.

While Hordak processes this, Angella admits she will never fully understand what being under Horde Prime’s control was like, as Micah does, but she also understands better than anyone who had not been chipped.

Hordak attempts to protest that while this may be true, bringing the Horde to Etheria seems excessive.

Angella counters with what the Horde gave to Adora in addition to time away from LH: training, a sense of responsibility….

And the experience of being betrayed, of being manipulated for the sake of Shadow Weaver’s own greed, of being lied to and needing to use her own critical thinking to confirm the truth.

Chapter 2 will show that this concept is going to have an angstfest impact on Hordak, and actually helps him understand Angella a lot better.

Hordak, a lot more subdued, again questions if traumatizing Adora had been necessary, and Angella admits there may have been an alternative time line she had not witnessed that may not have required it.

But she continues that it hadn’t just been the Horde itself she’d needed to bring to Etheria, but Hordak himself, shocking him again.

The memories here are focused on how Angella breeched reality for several crucial seconds to create the portal to bring Hordak to Etheria, in much the same way she described LH manipulating the thoughts of a Runestone Aligned princess/queen: gentle nudges against what already exists, pushing favorable thoughts/energies while repressing unfavorable ones just enough.

Angella doesn’t admit in her thoughts, but it’s implied to the reader that this all took multiple of her lifetimes to achieve, endless cycles of pressing a fragment of a nanometer against the wall of reality a cycle, the only substance she could even be tangible against.

Externally she describes how she had explored timelines where other clones had been transported to Etheria, and none had prepared Adora as successfully as the timeline Angella herself remembered. No clone but Hordak had had the precise combination of drive and persistence required to make the Horde a formidable threat, but also the singular motivation to return to Prime over conquest that allowed both Shadow Weaver’s machinations and the reformation of the Princess Alliance that shaped Adora.

Silently, she also admits that no other clone had successfully reconnected with Prime through a functional portal, and the reader briefly hears how Angella struggled with attempting to be selfish enough to not have Adora defeat Prime if it were possible, but Angella ultimately could not bring herself to not bring a savior to the greater galaxy when that timeline was already so clear before her.

(there’s one more point in Hordak’s favor, but that comes up in Chapter 2)

After Hordak processes this all, he surprises Angella - he calmly but sincerely apologizes that he and the horrors he had brought to her planet had ultimately been the best option she had found.

Reflecting Hordak’s earlier admission of his motives in rescuing her having nothing to do with Angella herself, the queen then tells him she still hates him with her entire being.

She, herself, even after the sacrifice she made the decision to make for the greater good, will never be able to actually forgive him, and she will not even try, even though Micah is.

Hordak appears amused by this to Angella; the next chapter reveals he actually finds it darkly funny to finally find someone not only willing to actively hate him but admit it to his face (Mermista is close but allows herself to be muffled by everyone else). It turns out he not only completely agrees with Angella’s assessment, but puts a chink into her inability to forgive him by pointing out another thing they have in common (completely without any desire to create empathy from her and totally towards his own mission of making amends to Adora and those close to her, oh how did chapter 2 turn even more angsty than this one so delightful….).

Anyway…

Hordak again apologizing that, as he will remain by Entrapta’s side and she is adamant about continuing to be Adora’s and therefore Glimmer’s friend, Entrapta’s going to end up dragging him to social functions Angella is present at.

Angella acknowledges this and points out she’s royalty - he is far from the first person she has had to remain civil towards in social settings despite despising, even of his is on a different level from anyone else.

This time, they share the amusement at the irony of them being perfectly attuned in this regard.

Not quite sure how to bridge this chapter to the next now that Chapter 2 exists in my brain, but I’ll at least give you my favorite part so far:

[Hordak cannot think how to brooch the topic he wants, trying to think of tactful ways to bring it up.] “Would I be mistaken to assume that there was a degree of - the desire for self-termination when you chose to sacrifice yourself to save Adora?”

The Queen’s head shot up and back even straighter, her eyes piercing daggers that immediately reminded him of His… of the betrayer’s fury.

I am so sorry Entrapta I am about to be executed on the spot I am so sorry I am an idiot please understand this was utterly my own responsibility please forget me and move on what in the deepest abyss was I thinking…

(it turns out, there are two reasons Hordak came to that conclusion; he silently acknowledges in this chapter that he fully intended for mutual destruction when he attacked Catra at the end of Season 4, let alone entering the purification pool…)

(As I said above, the memory of being controlled and witnessing the harm you were manipulated into doing to others you have responsibility over isn’t the only thing Hordak and Angella have in common….)

😈