#the hordak complex

[lilflowerpot]

Hi, just wanna say your fic is amazing and while I was watching House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen reminded me of your Lotor! (and Rhaenyra of Keith ofc) the rouge prince vibes is strong

genuinely, Daemon is my problematic fave because when it comes to fictional men I have a Very Niche Type oops

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

Hordak's Arms and Cybernetics

Thanks to something completely unrelated to Spop, I think I may have figured out how Hordak's arms work. And, I've got an idea for fanart. I always thought that they must have some kind of internal cybernetics to work because, organically, they shouldn't be able to move being just skin over bone without critical muscles and tendons. I figured that Horde-clone arms must be fundamentally different from our own in that they had some kind of cybernetics alongside the bone that worked in a way to compensate for or shore up the muscle and thus a rotting out of muscle that Hordak had didn't leave him completely helpless (although in a bad way). Cue a reboot of another show I liked back in the day coming up and showing me just how this might work! Trigun: Stampede is a re-work of the anime Trigun from 1998 and the manga from the late '90s - '10s. It was my very favorite thing from 2001, when I'd discovered it until the early '10s and Vash the Stampede is my all time favorite blorbo (even though my brain flitted off to other fandoms - Vash is the character I consistently list as "Favorite Character of All Time.") I couldn't get a JPEG to post, but the article as a web-image screenshot of the anime with a really nice shot of Vash's prosthetic. Vash always had a prosthetic left arm (well, not when he was a kid, but in the story of Trigun, all versions). In the original anime and manga, it's one of his three important guns (hence the series title). Despite this, he is actually a pacifist and I am glad that the new series has kept that critical part of his character. The arm/gun had a very different look in the manga and first anime series. The reboot redesigned it and instead of having it hidden and a revealed mystery later, just had it out loud and proud - and even made a joke about it when Meryl meets Vash. "Ooh, need a hand?" (Pops off). It is noted right away as Lost Technology (an important aspect of the Trigun story, like First Ones' tech, but slightly better remembered). Anyway, the redesigned arm - for people who take a look at the first-episode review article with pics... Look at the thing! It's a bone-arm! Well, it's metal / shiny crystalline stuff because Studio Orange wants to show off their animation-chops, but there it is, big ol' gap with a fake radius and ulna attached to the hand-unit with something of a pivot-joint, no artificial muscle or hydraulics need. And, yeah, watching my ULTIMATE BLORBO back in action in a new form for the first three episodes of the new anime released so far, I saw that arm and thought of reboot Hordak from my more recent fandom. It's like a eureka-moment, like "Ooooh! That's how arms that are Like That can work!" And it tempts me to do a fanart wherein Hordak has been given new fully-prosthetic arms by Entrapta... but they still have gaps in them, as a facsimile of his old arms (but they are indestructible First Ones tech crystal so there is no tactical advantage of anyone wedging anything in the gap) and they look like the new-version Vash-arm. If I do that, it will have to wait until I feel like doing fanart again. I'm too depressed to do much lately (for reasons spoken of earlier on this blog).

[babyspacebatclone]

The thing is, Horde Prime almost certainly could have made perfectly mindless, obedient biological robot clones.

There’s a chance it would have decreased their efficiency as a fighting force, but I really don’t think so.

And we can argue a meta “The writers’ didn’t think of the implications” excuse, but I think there is a very good reason in-universe why the clones do have emotions and a degree of reasoning ability on purpose.

Horde Prime is cruel.

He likes his dolls feeling pain.

Hordak is not the only clone to express individuality, and I don’t mean Wrong Hordak either.

The fandom based on the clones (we call ‘em Space Bats) have nicknames for two specific clone, Yudi and Pickles.

Yudi is the clone Catra meets outside Glimmer’s cell that Prime possesses.

You know, the one that rants:

You unworthy wretch! It is not for you to decide what matters to Prime. You are a parasite, nothing more than the dirt beneath his--

Pickles is the one the Princess capture, and what ep was that I can’t find that scene in the transcripts? 😠

Anyway…

The point is, these guys are enthusiastic about Prime.

Despite the fact that “expressing facial emotion is a privilege reserved only for Prime.” Straight from Wrong Hordak.

And yet, we have Pickles…

Who’s not only mocking but gets disappointed.

This is even backed up by Yudi as well - there’s an implication that his possession was intended as a punishment, which he would have probably interpreted as violating this rule.

So, we have evidence in the show that Hordak and Wrong Hordak aren’t the only clones to express themselves.

I would even put Wrong Hordak’s reactions when first severed from the hivemind here as well: he’a not disturbed by the way he’s acting (crying, making decisions), but by the fact that Prime can’t see he’s faithful.

And, there it is…

Faith.

Robot’s don’t have faith.

Followers have faith.

And Horde Prime wants people to be devoted to him, to want to please him, to be willing to do anything for him.

Horde Prime doesn’t want puppets - he could make those.

He has enough weapons.

He wants dolls, beings that walk around on their own and worship him on their own and bleed for him.

Hordak’s extent of agency is almost certainly tied to his defect, that he could function when severed from the hivemind long enough to not - well, roll over and die crying.

But having agency? Having emotions, and needs, and the ability to have desires?

That wasn’t the bug.

That was a very deliberate feature.

Unpopular opinion: I have some problem with Hordak's personality in relation to his "function".

I mean, the guy was created to literally be a living weapon meant to conquer, and to be completely submissive to Horde Pride, like a disciple facing his guru in a cult. So, I find it strange that Hordak not only has a certain autonomy which allowed him not only to adapt to Etheria, but also that he can love someone else, whereas given the egomaniacal and perfectionist personality of HP, I would have rather thought that he would have been programmed to love no one but HP. As well as being without fear, without guilt, without empathy, etc.

So, if the series wanted to be consistent with the fact that he is a clone created to be a servile soldier and weapon for HP, he should have been written in my opinion as cold, incapable of creating relationships with others, without psychological weaknesses, and not worrying about being loved by HP but just fulfilling its role as a weapon of conquest. In short, really more of a “weapon” than a person.

So certainly, that would make him lose sympathy, but nothing would prevent the series from writing him with subtleties or as a tragic villain victim of his condition.

i mean, i think one explanation to this would be that hordak was less robotic and apathetic because of his defect. it's not directly mentioned in the series but i can imagine that that was also part of the reason why prime cast him out. i'm not too sure though, that's just how i saw it.

[saijspellhart]

I keep rewatching She-ra (2018) on Netflix, and everytime I just melt over the romances. I love Entrapa and Hordak's progression of friendship to romance. The trust, the comfort, the bond between two awkward people who come from very different circumstances. The message of finding beauty in imperfection. Entrapta planting the seeds and concept of "loving youself" to Hordak.

And I absolutely adore the writing for Catra and Adora's relationship. Its exquisite. That popular fanfic trope of friends to enemies to lovers is captured so well in She-ra. Its drama, and angst, and tension, and a delicate dance of hate-loving. Its obsession and trauma, hurt and comfort. Its Catra realizing she is the problem in her relationships and taking a long look in the mirror. Its all the wonderful things people crave in a good messy fictional enemies to lovers.

Like mmmmm, god damn. The writer's were working magic with this show. They didnt even need to be half this competent and good, but they did and they were. They poured their hearts into constructing a rich and moving narrative with rich and complex relationships. I love them for it. I could wax poetry, and construct essays on how much the writing and relationships in this show are so intricately well written.

[catras-breakup-song]

something i wish people understood about she-ra is that it’s not about the war, it’s about catradora.

the war is just the setting for their story, not the main plot. while i’m aware that the show is just a reboot of basic cookie-cutter characters without much depth, it’s of my opinion that this is at least partially why hordak and especially prime were such weak villains. (i.e. the former bending to catra’s will the moment she removed the first ones' crystal on his armor and sat in his throne, while the latter was defeated and dispelled with just a declaration of love and single magic beam.) yes this is another one of those lighthearted “friendship saves the day!” surface-level cartoons for kids, despite the mature themes it simultaneously takes on too, but i also think it was so simple to take these overlords down in terms of planning because all the complexities went into catra and adora’s relationship to each other. the show isn’t memorable for the princess alliance & rebellion vs. the horde, but you see the writing of catradora get praise all the time.

[fruitybowl]

Okay okay so I'm gonna be talking about something I don't normally talk about but I just need to ramble.

The way the She Ra fandom treats the show (specifically the part that's obsessed with the horde kids) is really weird. Like look...would I have liked to see more of the horde kids? Yes absolutely. I think their relationship with each other and Adora could have been interesting to explore but I'm okay they didn't. Because guess what? The show isn't about them. The way people talk about the horde kids makes it seem like they were integral parts of the story that weren't utilized effectively, but they weren't at all??? Like they're barely in the show apart from a few few minute cameos in some episodes or just in the background, and that one episode in season 4 where they had a B plot. That's about it. They are not nearly as important to the story as Adora, Catra, Bow and Glimmer, and even Hordak. The reason the show doesn't focus on Adora's relationship with the horde kids is because her relationship with Catra is the focus! And arguably the most important relationship in the show. And onto the treatment of Kyle in the show and by the creators. Yes I think Kyle deserves better and a break, but I think people are being a little dramatic when talking about him. Now again, Kyle is not exploring as in-depth as the other characters so I don't think it's fair to give his treatment by the show and writers the same weight as said characters. I truly don't believe that the treatment of Kyle reflects on how the writers are as people I just don't 😂. Yes he's a punching bag...but almost every show has one. Now if he was as prominent in the story as Adora or Catra and was still treated the same then I would be concerned. But that's if they poked fun at parts of his character that were formed from abuse, and I don't believe they would do that. If Kyle was part of the cast they would have written him with the same amount of care that they did with the other characters. I have a hard time believing the same people that wrote Catra, one of the most complex and interesting characters in the show, would treat Kyle's story with any less care because he's a scrawny white guy (and yes I have seen people make the argument that Kyle is treated so harshly by the writers because he's white which is...quite ridiculous in my opinion.)

People also seem to forget how BIG the main cast is. There are already so many characters to explore that it would have been very hard for them to explore the horde kids more than just surface level. It would have made the show too busy in my opinion. And ONCE AGAIN the horde kids are not the main characters, so we shouldn't expect them to be treated like it. If you want the horde kids to be explored.more, then read fanfiction...or write it yourself.

Anyway I'm done rambling now. If you have anything else to add to this then feel free to. I'd be happy to discuss this more

[thestargayzingetherian]

She-Ra In He-Man Revelations/Revolution

So it's been a few days and I wanted to put this post out there to basically publicly give my thoughts on some... recent developments concerning He-Man Revolution. Before I go into this, MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE SHOW!

And also, and this is probably MORE important than the spoiler warning. Do not, and I repeat, do not take whatever speculation I put in this post as gospel or something that is GOING to happen. I may be a bit more knowledgeable than a lot of people about this stuff, but I don't wanna consider myself an expert. This is just me speculating and giving my thoughts and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up because there's a good chance, that what I'm saying turns out to be completely wrong and I don't wanna be responsible for that, so please, take all of this with the smallest grain of salt possible.

With that out of the way...

So the new season of He-Man ends with the reveal of this lady, Despara. For those who don't know... she is Adora. As in She-Ra Adora. In the DC He-man comics, Despara was the name Adora was known as when she was raised as Hordak's daughter. Her name is often used by Catradora fan artists and fic writers who really wanna just make Adora a hot evil lesbian, usually with a hot butch hairdo. It is likely that if/when another season of this show comes, Despara will be the main focus.

Now this raises the obvious question... how are they going to handle the She-Ra stuff. As I have made posts about before, the She-Ra rights and He-Man rights have been separate for a very long time and apparently, the last thing I heard, Mattel themselves can't use any of the She-Ra characters in animated form due to Dreamworks owning them now.

So naturally, you might be thinking that Despara here is just a placeholder because they can't use She-Ra. Except... there are a LOT of She-Ra references in this season that are way too numerous to be just references.

For example:

They recreate the exact scene from the 80s She-Ra movie where Adora is taken as a baby by Hordak in a flashback scene. They also mention Horde Prime existing as well and they EVEN imply that Shadow Weaver exists in this universe as well and Hordak's new robot second-in-command, Motherboard is a replacement for her.

So yeah, all signs SEEMINGLY point to some sort of She-Ra-inspired adaption being the next part of this show. Now, considering the very complex rights issues... I can see this going one of two ways.

Mattel and Dreamworks did a deal like the one Sony and Marvel did with Spiderman to temporarily get the She-Ra rights back for JUST this next season. Despara is revealed to be Adora and her arc will be her learning her true family AND eventually becoming She-Ra to fight Horde Prime with her brother and possibly all the other She-Ra cast are there too. This I feel like it would be the ideal solution to all of this.

2. Despara is revealed to be someone else OTHER than Adora under her helmet because her face is obviously not seen in her brief scene when she takes her helmet off. Technically, Mattel would own Despara outright and not Dreamworks and they could easily make Despara her own character. This was also how they planned to include her in the second season of CGI He-Man. HOWEVER, considering all the foreshadowing and knowing how many people working on these shows loved SPOP... I feel like it'd be really unsatisfying if it wasn't Adora under the mask, both as a fan and from a creative standpoint.

As for my personal theory of what Despara's whole deal is, I think she's ruling Etheria on the other side of the galaxy with Catra and serving personally under Horde Prime. Basically SPOP but a bad ending. The plot will be He-Man and his friends finding out about Etheria and going there to free the planet and Despara will redeem herself and she and Catra and whoever will join team good guy.

But that's just my personal theory. I really don't know what the hell is going to happen here or even IF more episodes will even be coming and I don't want to get people's hopes up. There's a reason I myself have been working on my own She-Ra and He-Man crossover extended universe stuff for the last while so, at the very least, there'd be a fanfic that would satisfy my hopes. I am prepared to be very wrong here.

But even if none of this speculation pans out, I still highly recommend this show to She-Ra fans. The second season definitely fixed the few issues I had with the first one and I hope more comes out of this version of He-Man... then again, it wouldn't be the first time a He-Man series was cancelled.

Hope you find this post informative!

[thornwashere]

catradora, catra, and azula is there too

this is sort of a multifandom post (bc both of these shows have a death grip on my brain juices) but it’s something ive been thinking about

awhile ago i saw this video about why catradora is abusive, and i realized it had some good points. catradora is objectively, even just disregarding the romance factor, an abusive relationship. (STAY WITH ME NOW FOLKS, i love catradora give me a second)

it’s not fair, however, to say catra and her relationship with adora are plainly horrible things. in fact, given the (criminally short) time the two characters are seen romantically involved on screen, i think the situation was handled quite well.

one character i never see catra compared to is azula, but i genuinely think it is an incredibly accurate comparison.

both were raised in non ideal circumstances, and both were incredibly skilled and of course have similar personalities. instead of breaking off and healing like the person in their similar circumstance does (zuko and adora respectively), they stay because they both want to prove themselves.

azula, by the end, isn’t there for the power trip. she wants to prove herself to her father.

and catra at first wants to prove herself to shadowweaver. then hordak. then horde prime. and then at the end? she wants to prove herself to adora.

they are parallels, both treated horribly by their mother figures, longing for companionship and attachment, but being far too brash and trained for violence to be able to function healthily anywhere. catra sees adora. azula sees her mom.

one thing i think we always forget is that both of these characters are CHILDREN. minors. young people. easily influenced KIDS who want to prove themselves. who were, quite frankly, raised in a purely abusive environment. but because they both show the hard, not sunshine and rainbows pretty side of trauma, they are therefore evil people.

what both of these characters do to people is abuse. i wont disregard that at all. but abuse most often comes from a place of trauma, violence, and rage.

when catra came over to good, things are still not easy for her.

remember when zuko got sick after helping aang and appa in s2? (a far too underspoken of an arc i must add) catra is ALSO sick after having such a drastic mental switch, but she shows it with her intense amount of mental problems. this wont be cured by falling in love with adora. this wont be cured by being with adora. she will still lash out and hurt people and be sick.

people don’t seem to recognize there is a gray area between “uncaring hatred and abuse” and “love cured me.” it’s not fair to say catra is evil. that’s disregarding what catra went through. but it’s also not fair to say catra is a fully good, amazing person. that’s disregarding everything she has done.

my favorite character IS catra because of how complex and imperfect and FULLY flawed she is. her trauma isn’t coded with sugared words and cured by romance. it’s raw, powerful, sad and angry. and it is also scary. that’s how trauma is.

mentally ill people are redeemable. azula is redeemable. catra isn’t exempt from this.

none of this is to say catra and adora shouldnt date (bc they should bc they are cutie patooties [and mentally ill people can be in perfectly healthy relationships]) but just that BOTH OF THEM need to heal before their relationship can be considered healthy. they need to take time and heal.

overall the point of this post was to show there is a gray area between irredeemable villainous acts and an entirely innocent person :)

i’ve discovered i love tumblr bc i can just yap and yap and people will see it?? and like?? acknowledge what im saying?? crazy fr

[lordhavemurthy]

i think what people tend to not understand about She-Ra (reboot) is that none of the characters (minus Horde Prime) are meant to be seen as pure good or evil. People get really pressed over how the princesses treat Entrapta (which i don't agree is right) or how Entrapta did betray them, thus making her a "morally grey character" because she has obsessions and shows signs of autism. But this isnt just something that happens with Entrapta, it happens with all of the characters. Catra and Glimmer are the next obvious, so i wont go into depth there, but for instance Adora can be very prideful. She lets the fame get to her head and isolates herself from everyone else in attempts to save the world. now, the latter isn't all her fault, Light Hope and Shadow Weaver made sure of that, but its still there. Mermista wants to be the center of attention, she wants to be the most powerful of the group and have something unique like She-Ra. Perfuma struggles to get along with people who are pessimistic or even more objective because it interferes with her "vibes." Scorpia isn't the greatest with boundaries, Frosta's a fucking child, Sea Hawk is a fucking arsonist (seriously why do we skip over that one? love him but my guy needs therapy), Angella is a coward who (despite her attempts to keep her away) sends her own daughter into battle before going out on the front lines herself, and yes, Entrapta betrayed her friends. Which, despite it being manipulated into something else here, wasn't good. She may not have understood how badly she hurt her friends (until S 5), but she actively knew that what Hordak was doing was wrong because she agreed to help the rebellion. She shows later on that while she doesnt pick up on emotional cues, she does understand what is going on, she just focuses on tech, but she gets the danger and the stakes, she knows. Let me say, however, that none of these traits, from any of these characters, make them "morally grey" (i hate that fucking term btw) it makes them human. none of us are perfect. we all have flaws, we will all hurt someone in our lives, we all make mistakes. it is how you try to rectify those mistakes, that determines whether or not your character is "good." Hordak, despite every terrible thing he did, realized he was wrong in the end, and rebelled. Entrapta apologized and sacrificed her life multiple times to save not only her friends, but the entire planet, even Shadow Weaver, who I could make a whole other separate post on, sacraficed herself so that not only Catra and Adora could live on together and save the world, but so that she wouldn't be tempted with the power that was about to be unleased. The only character i can possibly think of that doesn't have an obvious flaw (that i can see) is Bow, but he's not perfect either. To suggest so would to put in on a playing field in which no human (or complex character) could survive. So for the love of god, stop looking at it like Nate made only Entrapta "morally grey" because every character in that show made mistakes.

edit: thank you for those who made me aware of the proper name/pronouns the creator (Nate) uses now, i appreciate you!

[adorawasright]

as i said in the tags, i just rewatched the light spinner episode (i think the most memorable one from s2... other than white out, for entirely wrong reasons). i thought it was an interesting look to shadow weaver's motivations - and i guess catra's too, since despite everything, catra didn't want to send SW to beast island. not to mention her feeling pushed away by hordak in favor of entrapta, which is just history repeating itself in catra's eyes.

i guess my issue with this episode comes from the poor world-building... everything felt too vague when it came to the war, the role of the sorcerers, and how the spells worked. i thought the spell turning "evil" was kind of weird imo. it probably meant that "ooooh light spinner was secretly evil all along!!!". but like, you kinda understand why LS went this far, because she knew the rebellion was losing to the horde, and none of the other sorcerers wanted to do anything to help. they just expected the princesses to solve everything even though they were clearly losing.

i thought light spinner's dynamic with micah was interesting too. like save for her lashing out at him once, their relationship wasn't... outright abusive? i hope i'm not being ignorant or anything. she did use his power and she felt betrayed by him supposedly ruining the spell, which isn't true. but it didn't feel like the way shadow weaver used adora later on. and before disappearing, SW doesn't hurt micah like she did the other sorcerers in the room. she only gently touched his cheek and looked at him with... love? she did seem to care about him. OBVIOUSLY, i'm not erasing her being an asshole overall. i'm just saying.

yeah, basically, i think this is a solid episode, save for the world-building. it's too bad this complexity was dropped in the final season.

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Scorpia

Scorpia is an Elemental Princesses who grew up in the wastelands of the Fright Zone in the realm of Etheria.  Her family ruled this region until the villainous Hordak conquered the Fright Zone.  Scorpia’s family were forced to capitulate to Hordak, resulting in Scorpia being made to act as a Force Captain for the Horde.

During her time as a lieutenant of the Horde, Scorpia became close fiends with her fellow captain, Catra, as well as a college to Adora.  She was a good soldier when did not question Hordak’s evil rule in the battles she waged against the rebellion.  She would go on to become a fierce adversary of Adora after she defected to the rebellion.  

Scorpia harbored an unrequited love for Catra and seeing Catra embrace an increasingly unhinged and evil attitude caused Scorpia to become disillusioned with the Horde.  Scorpia ultimately left the Horde and joined the Princess Alliance, battling against both Hordak and Catra.   Not long thereafter, Scorpia bravely overcame her deeply seated fear of lightning so to connect with the Black Garnet Runestone.  Doing so bestowed her the powers of an Elemental Princess and she gained the ability to control electricity.  These new powers proved essential in the rebellion’s ultimate victory over The Horde and Hordak Prime.  

The version of Scorpia from the original She-Ra: Princess of Power series was less complexed and nuanced. 

In this version, Scorpia was a powerful slaver who ruled over the Crimson Waste.  She was an ally to Hordak and battled against She-Ra.  In this version, Scorpia and Catra were not friends but rather bitter rivals who competed against one another so to earn Hordak’s favor.  

Actress Lauren Ash provided the voice for Scorpia in the 2018 She-Ra and The Princesses of Power series, whereas actress Linda Gary voiced the character in the original 1985 She-Ra series.  

[n7punk]

“Make Me a Monster” Fic Notes

MMaM was pretty short and this will be too but this fic has some Backstory and I wanna talk about it lmao.

Playlist:

Warriors (AJ Michalka version)

heavy. — Au/Ra

The Creeps — Garbage

LIFE AFTER SALEM — Lil Nas X

The Heartless (original rock version) — PVRIS (kind of hard to get. Was only available on their PARIS EP which isn’t available for streaming last I checked)

Waking Up (Acoustic) — PVRIS (from the acoustic version of the PARIS EP, which is available on youtube)

chaotic — Tate McRae

Hate myself — Tate McRae

R.E.M. — Mothica

Shatter — Against The Current

Frankenstein — Rina Sawayama

My Limb — Hayley Williams

Epilogue Life:

It takes awhile and I could never write this fic in a timespan where it’s complete, but Adora does come to accept her new prosthetics. After the revelations about She-ra and the Heart, she comes to realize this version of them is the most ideal she could get purely because they don’t need maintenance, removal, cleaning etc and she can care for them the exact way she can the rest of her body, which makes them feel a lot more like her body. Her sense of touch isn’t 100%, still losing some texture differentiation and the ability to really feel light touches (she wouldn’t feel a bug walking on her arm for example), but as shown in the epilogue she learns to adapt, and eventually she stops covering up so much either. When she starts to wear her jacket less is when Catra knows she has made real progress. Her prosthetics are magic and never need intervention, which helps.

On Catra’s part, her guilt also takes a lot to process, as does her trauma from her time chipped, which only feeds into her guilt because she feels like she inflicted that same dehumanization on Adora. She comes to focus her energy on “fixing” things instead though, which does lead to some unhealthy burnout, but the worry her friends show for her then does a lot to help her internalize that no, they really don’t hate her.

It’s one of those cases where they take longer to get to a healthy place than in canon, but they do eventually reach it. They get through the worst of it early on, but those effects echo for a long time.

Chapter 1:

⦁ I was pretty worried going into this how people would feel about this, mostly because it’s an incredibly complex situation. Prosthetics are often helpful, but they tend to not be as effective as people hope and even when they are, that still doesn’t mean people don’t look at them and see what they lost sometimes. This situation in particular, where the prosthetics were largely unnecessary and completely forced on her, was painful. Adora is struggling not just with that, but with the very familiar process of trying to get back where she was before an injury/disability, but sometimes that’s just not possible. She’s seeking every piece of functionality and feeling she gets with her prosthetics, but that doesn’t mean she is less for having lost something either. I was worried about people thinking that attitude she has is ableist, when it’s really just a part of the disabled experience. Some people never have it, but I’m definitely someone who has struggled with trying to get things back while knowing I’ll never get it all. It… really sucks, and even when things seem good, there can be a bittersweetness to them. That’s the kind of attitude I was approaching this fic with. There was also the medical abuse angle with her prosthetics. Despite her impossibly advanced prosthetics, this is a very real thing I actually saw conversations about when TotK came out, which is what gave me of the exact phrase for that trigger because I was having trouble naming/describing it in the content warning before that.

⦁ Hordak was working on prosthetic limbs in the event that his deteriorating state made it impossible for him to keep working, using Adora as his guinea pig to test their effectiveness. Shadow Weaver kind of thought there was a chance She-ra could regrow them entirely even if that wasn’t what she was banking on. She actually thought the second accident was a mercy, because Hordak already wanted to test out the set on Adora at that point, so making it “necessary” was supposed to be easier on Adora. Her empathy meter is broken.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Catra just can’t “get” why Adora stayed, but it was kind of impossible for her to leave before that. Part of her already knew Shadow Weaver would be back for more, but she couldn’t let herself do it because it was the “wrong” thing to leave Etheria to the princesses. When she realized the Rebellion wasn’t actually monsters, it was all so much worse because she realized everything — her arms, Catra’s punishments, the horrible way they grew up that she didn’t even really have perspective for — had been for nothing. Catra was right all along. They should have runaway. So she did

⦁ I didn’t intend to title the chapters of this fic since it was so short, but then the “You promise?” line came up and I wanted to make that the chapter title for clarification purposes if nothing else, so I added them in.

Chapter 3:

⦁ I know I’m kind of the “let’s talk about traumatized Catra” person but tbh I still don’t think we give enough weight to having your body literally puppeted while you watch and undergo nightmare hallucinations. Like how the fuck was she functioning after that. So yeah on top of Adora being extra traumatized in this (and Catra additionally having extra trauma from watching that happen), I wanted to go a bit into the echoes of having been under Horde Prime’s control for Catra too. (Other members of the Princess Alliance who were chipped definitely deal with nightmares from this too, but I have a feeling the nightmare scenarios were mostly unique to Catra, especially considering the green pool wasn’t used on the others and by the time Prime had the others under his control he was dealing with a lot of chips and conjuring up nightmare scenarios for them all doesn’t make sense.)

⦁ In this AU there was a lot more immediately obvious awfulness from Shadow Weaver, so even after the portal Glimmer did keep her confined to her room, not that it helped Adora’s mental state much. She was a lot more hated and shunned in Bright Moon and when they were on the run. Catra and Adora still cried watching her die, but after the fact their general attitude is a mixture of “good riddance” and “how could she do all that to us and then just die without ever acknowledging it?” They take her sacrifice as the closest thing they’ll ever guilt to an admission of feeling guilt.

⦁ The thing about Adora never being able to tell if her sensation is back to “normal” is a very real thing when it comes to disability. I remember at one point telling a friend that I couldn’t tell if I wasn’t in pain or was just shouldering it because I didn’t remember what not being in pain felt like anymore.

⦁ If you know my poll, this was “in the engine room.”

Chapter 4:

⦁ In this AU, they have no idea the First Ones Virus could infect She-ra with just the sword since it seemed “obvious” it spread from the robots, to the sword, to her prosthetics, which somehow caused everything to go haywire. Because she was working with her original set that was less advanced, the virus was legitimately latched onto She-ra itself, which also explains why it went away with she reverted the transformation. They just thought changing “bodies” let her purge the virus when she transformed back. The corruption from the First Ones… worm, thing, corrupted Adora’s limbs similarly to how the virus took over her, only with green instead of red, completely changing the colors of her arms and legs and then slowly creeping up her veins. It was gnarly.

⦁ Entrapta just has a better connection with Catra and was looking to her for an answer, but a small incline of the head was their signal back in the Horde that she should really just agree with whoever she’s talking with. She almost never paused to notice it, but Catra was trying her best (and failing) to keep her out of trouble.

Original Outline:

Originally this AU was supposed to be longer, starting when Adora first lost her limbs, then skimming through scenes throughout the series, until finally landing on Darla. That was just an extra 2-3 chapters probably, but 1) god that’s too much angst. It kept me from writing it for like 9 months because I didn’t want to do it, 2) the balance just wasn’t there? Everything got “minute-to-minute” once they were on Darla, with entire chapters dedicated to it, where as the previous chapters were scattered moments taking place over literal years. This did mean I lost some ideas that were supposed to take place in the war and such (the princess prom scene, for example), but it’s still better for it.

I started to write that longer version of it back in 2022(!) but only worked on it for two days to about 2k before I was like this is not vibing and dropped it. When I picked it back up with the shorter timeline in mind, I wrote 70% of this fic in one sitting back in September, but then I got kind of stuck on their reconciling conversation and I think it was just a little too much angst for me then so I didn’t come back to it the next day. I’ve opened it occasionally since then to glance over but it just wasn’t clicking until this week. I edited what I had and wrote the rest of the fic in two days once I was there, though. I am proud of this fic but it’s definitely a very emotional one so it kind of has to happen in bursts like that. I’m glad to have finally gotten it out now, as rocky as getting from idea to completion was. I had the idea November 14th 2022, wrote most of it September 4th 2023, and finally finished it March 9th 2024.

Upcoming:

Start Your Engine ;)

[andhereisthetea]

Let me explain why I like Hordak as a character

For me, there is always gonna by a Big Bag worse than him, doesn't excuse his actions but makes him struggle, only exception was 200x Hordak, but because the show was cancelled and they didn't go beyond the initial idea of him, his backsatory was brushed and he was mostly a two dimentional villain, and not even mentioning the DC comics which bastardized him deeply.

He ins't a redeemable character the moment he helps or joins the protagonists (be He-Man, She-Ra, the Masters, whatever who is helping in the plot), I knew that about him from the very beginning and that is the type of complexity I like about him; he is actually The Atoner and in several comics and even classic eps he has shown qualities of such. Meanwhile, Horde Prime or Anillis Kur, his older brother, is always behind his back, and he fears him and respect him, but every time he fails, Prime mocks him and threats him.

As well, in one of the most emblematic classic comics "Masters of the Universe Star Comics issue No. 11" from 1987, the idea of Hordak losing his memory (and with it his Horde conditioning) and slowly becoming an Atoner was alredy there:

But then he is manipulated magically by Shadow Weaver (insteresting concept, just how she did with Adora for years) and he returns to his way due to both the conditioning and his memories returning too, but he still has a choice of his own in the end.

The final point is Adora/She-Ra.

She is always involved in his plan in some way, be stoping him or him wanting her back because even in the classics, he raised her. Maybe not in the 2018 show, but even briefly there were several parallels between both. She is important for him be good or bad. I have no idea how to explain this further, but they understand each other, Adora as She-Ra mocks him in Flowers for Hordak and he immediately agrees to helps the rebels if they take Perfuma away, he abandons a battle he was winning after She-Ra helps him in Into the Dark Dimention. And involving Adora, he praised her from the very beginning even when he hasn't to because she was magically manipulated by Shadow Weaver, and until the very end his tunnel vision is the idea to get her back.

"But he kidnaped her as a baby!" a terrible thing indeed, but the Universe of MOTU isn't a peaceful one, because when this happened, the Sorceress erased the memories of Adora from the Eterians, even as a show explanation, there was apparently no further investigation about her, and years later Orko and Duncan kept the secret of He-Man's identity being Randor's son when he had been in more near death experiences that we can count, that is also horrible. And I can tell you isn't the worst thing a villain has ever done before, just ask Skeletor, or even Zodac.

But the basis is, the idea of joining or even help reluctantly the heroes, be for or against his own ideals is there, it exist as a concept for him, meanwhile when we are faced with Prime's ideologies and way of ruling, it isn't. In some way Hordak as a character adapts to the situation but also understand the other side of the coin, he express reluctancy, he has deep flaws due to his arrogance and he fails because of this, and he also express a choice of his own idependently of Prime, could you imagine what would happen if Prime finds out about him allowing the Rebellion to go unscratched because he felt he owed one to She-Ra?

And every time he is in some type of trouble, She-Ra helps him somehow because is very likely she understand this about him.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

okay so first off. what does being "full on adults" have to do with disliking a character? like?? are we not allowed to dislike or criticize fiction once we cross the age of eighteen?

secondly, i love how they imply that we hate catra because of some sexist reason, but then lists mostly women among the characters who were immediately forgiven and faced no criticism from the viewers. so maybe it's not people "hating on complex female characters" maybe we just dislike poorly written ones.

and who said people don't hold hordak, scorpia, entrapta, etc accountable for their actions? we do, it's just that catra played a more important role in the story as the main villain and adora's love interest so obviously she's under more scrutiny.

we also see her commit more heinous crimes on screen, unlike scorpia and lonnie who were just following orders and hordak whose crimes were all lipservice. it's a lot easier to like a character who only committed heinous crimes off-screen. again, not justifying hordak's behavior, i just think the writers failed to make him an actual threat.

also i don't know how the nimona comics were but in the movie, ballister and ambrosius did have a relatively healthier relationship than catra and adora. mainly because ambrosius never hurt ballister on purpose and he genuinely felt guilty for his actions. even when he turned on nimona, he did it to protect ballister. he wasn't just using all forms of abuse on his boyfriend just for the fun of it, and excusing it by saying that he had a shitty childhood.

"(...) in terms of Catra, we saw the beginning of her redemption arc but she still worked towards it. She still took time to reflect, give genuine apologies to the Best Friends Squad, and turn around for the better."

i'm sorry? when did she apologize to the best friends squad? because i only remember her giving a half-assed apology to adora. glimmer and bow never got an apology from catra. glimmer especially deserved an apology because catra's actions led to her mother's death. also, i've already talked about how catra didn't actually change for the better and kept repeating her toxic habits, so i trust i don't have to say it again.

i do agree that in azula's case, the hate was more undeserved, mainly because none of her actions were justified by the narrative. and like op said, azula didn't have someone to offer her proper guidance.

(although i have to remind you, ursa never called azula a monster. she disapproved of azula's behavior but the monster part was just how azula perceived it. but i guess you know more about these shows than me, right?)

and that's where catra's actions can't be justified because she got multiple ways out, people in her life were constantly giving her chances, and she still chose to do evil. catra had all the resources she needed to become a better person, she was given opportunity after opportunity from the very first episode, and she still chose to participate in the war and chose to abuse and hurt people.

[saijspellhart]

Tumblr keeps recommending me posts with some of the worst takes on Catra’s character. Always an//ti//Catradora posts. (Like, did we watch the same show? We couldn’t have possibly watched the same show. Why the fuck would anyone compare her trauma to Hordak? Because they are on two entirely different character journeys, at wildly different age ranges and maturity, and with wildly different amounts of time to grow and change. Never mind the constant outside negative authority influences on Catra all the fucking damn time, that Hordak never has to deal with until season 5. And fortunate for Hordak, Prime doesn’t allow him the free will to choose a path, so Hordak gets a free pass, his character growth and budding humanity remain intact.) Don’t get me started on this, I could write a whole critical analysis on why Catra is a wonderfully written complex character, and why comparing her to Hordak is fucking ludicrous. Honestly the lack of comprehension about writing, character, fantasy, narrative and trauma astounds me when I see some of these Catra hate posts pop up in my recommended feed.

Tumblr, hopefully your algorithm gets this, but I LOVE Catra. I love her. I love this tortured mess, I love the writing that went into her character, I love her waffling precarious hold on sanity and reason. I love how she struggles to cope with her trauma. I love the realism put into her character despite the fantasy setting. But I also love that they didn’t push the realism too far, because it is at the end of the day a fantasy story. I love the delicate balance they wove into her character. I love the complexity and thought put into her entire character arc through the whole series. (And before anyone comes to crucify me, I say I love Catra, as a person who suffered immense parental trauma and manipulation. As a victim of some of the worst of it. I shouldn’t even have to mention my own trauma to justify appreciating a FICTIONAL character. But here we are.)

Would I have loved one extra season to really explore her redemption more thoroughly? Yes of course. An extra season would have been delightful to explore a lot of the character relationships more thoroughly. But we didn’t get that, and what the show creators did give us was still wonderful and satisfying. (Even if I have some critiques on some things.) the writing of the show at the end of the day is still smart, and tight, and so so competent. (Looking at the myriad of other story driven cartoons and shows that fall apart in the later seasons or just have an overwhelming amount of inconsistencies and botched writing. **coughs** Voltron, Miraculous, YGO, Netflix Carmen Sandiego, Bleach, many animes in general, just to name a few. Not that I didn’t love and adore most of these shows too.) the fact that She-ra (2018) stayed consistently tight and snappy and smart with their writing, narrative, and characters from beginning to end is a treasure.

Anyway. Catra is great. I could write a character analysis going into why from a writing and storytelling standpoint. But honestly I don’t think anyone cares that deeply, and I don’t exactly have followers who are particularly interested in She-ra. Tumblr, you god forsaken windfall apple, please stop suggesting an//ti//Catra and an//ti//Catradora posts. I don’t want to see them. I support the canon relationships. And I support the non canon ships too. What I do not support is hating on shippers who like other ships. It breeds contempt in a fandom, and leads to a fandom canabalizing itself until there are no fans left. Also letting hate and disdain take up such a large amount of time and space in your brain, leads you down some dark paths mentally.

[red-l1ke-roses]

One of my favourite things about shera is that the show always makes me empathetic and genuinely like some of the main villains. take hordak, he’s committed war crimes but I still feel bad for him. all the villains (except hord prime) have compelling backstorys, their still villains, still people who’ve done terrible things. yet their complex and are really quite sad. shera has an amazing ability to show that almost no one is ‘born evil’ events have to happen to push that person into a desperate enough position to be like this. They exactly never say that they should be forgiven for their actions simply why their doing them. while many of those villains got somewhat redemption arcs but I thought it was done in an amazing way.

Specifically characters like catra, shadowweaver and Hordak. I could rant about thier redemption arcs for a long while but I would like to do that separately, so I’m gonna leave this off here. Hordak is genuinely one of my favourite characters so he’ll probably go first as i may be a little biased. Hope you enjoy!