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sometipsygnostalgic · 1 month

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Likable vs Complex vs "Good"

EDIT: Couple people came up to me thinking of alternatives for category 3 "Good" and my favourite is Kimberly's suggestion of "effective". I think "effective" is great because it means well utilized. It's pretty much exactly what I was going for when writing the descriptions in this post.

I feel that when it comes to describing characters, there are strong differences between a

Likable character - Someone you enjoy watching, like to have on screen, might want to share a drink with. Most protagonists. Usually a blorbo with a mass fandom who says they were done wrong if theyre a side character.

Complex character - how many layers does this one have? how much do you have to talk about them to explain them? Do you see people defending them with massive text posts? Do you follow this blog? You have experience with complex characters.

"Good" character - I don't mean a good person. That is more of a "likable" characteristic. I mean, does this character serve a solid role in the story? Do they have a job, and do they perform it well? This can include minor characters you don't care for, and it can actually exclude complex characters if their motivations don't seem to make sense or have relevance to the story.

I think a "good" character can be further broken down into subcategories but it's impossible to define whether a character is good by a basic description for all series. It requires comprehension of the source material and what it's trying to do.

Allow me to illustrate this with some examples.

I was considering what show to use for this. Let's go with She-Ra for now because it's my current thing and I don't want to be roasting SU or Owl House, and I think Adventure Time is a bad fit due to how episodic it is. I'd have to categorise by season for each example. Let me know if you want me to talk about any specific characters.

Sea Hawk

Likable: Yes Complex: No Good: No

Sea Hawk is a side character in She-Ra who gets kinda sidelined. He hasn't got much to do with anything but he makes me smile when he shows up. I don't think Sea Hawk has a purpose other than to make chaotic background noise. I think that's fine? But he's not a good character and the show would lose almost nothing if he was gone.

Edit: I feel kinda bad for implying sea hawk is not a good character so remember that I mean he isn't used effectively, he doesn't have much involvement and presence. I think a key example is his absence from season 5 entirely when he could have been used more effectively and wasn't.

Light Hope

Likable: Not really Complex: Not really Good: YES

Light Hope is Adora's mentor as She-Ra who is actually manipulating her. Light Hope has a tragic story that adds to her complexity but she's deeply overshadowed by other characters in the story.

What makes her a good character is how strongly Light Hope ties to the themes of the story. Her reveal as being "actually evil" could have been shallow and bad in a different series (anyone else playing Halo recently?) but Light Hope having her agency stolen from her, just like Adora, makes it liberating and heartbreaking when she is destroyed alongside the Sword of Protection.

Light Hope represents the oppressive regime of the First Ones and the ways they would control Etheria, while being a victim herself. She heavily parallels Adora. She does not require being complex or likable to have an important impact on the story.

Micah

Likable: Yes Complex: Yes proportional to screentime Good: Not consistently

I really like Micah. He's one of my favourite side characters. So why can I not call him a good character?

It's because he only serves to drive the actions of others, and when he is onscreen as an actual character, the show doesn't know what to do with him.

Micah was "dead" for most of the show and his life and death drove the decisions of plenty of others. He learnt from Shadow Weaver and was an important part of her corruption arc, being better at magic than her but scared away by the dark magic, which ended up attacking her. His disappearance is why Angella and Glimmer's relationship is so strained, why Glimmer is so determined to prove herself, and when he was in the Portal World, both characters had to give up the "wrong future" with him to restore the world.

Micah has a character with way more depth than you'd expect from a dead dad. He has a funny likable personality and is a highly skilled mage with a variety of relationships, who has survived on an island for god knows how long.

However, this kind of speaks to him being the protagonist of his own story, and She-ra is so chock full of characters aiming to a specific goal. Micah actually being alive has very little to do with the story of season 5. He isn't part of the space mission. He has an episode with Frosta, another character who has little to do with anything, and then he gets chipped for the rest of the show.

The reason Micah ended up this way is because he's a complex character in a story that has no room to do anything with him. He's not the only victim of season 5's crunch time, far from it, but he never got any screentime or "arc" and his actions don't tie in to the show very much.

Glimmer

Likable: No Complex: Yes Good: Yes

Edit: I'm guessing this one was what got me flack? But Glimmer is easily in my top 3 favourite characters and imo she is the character i by far most greatly resemble. I used her here because I think she's a much more interesting example of a disliked yet very well written character than Catra for this post. But it's evident, if you look at the fandom behaviour, casual viewers don't like her much. People either love her for her everything or kind of hate her, and she's treated badly in a lot of fanfic. The reasons for this exist in the show's writing and framing and how people interpret her. She's far from the first blorbo of mine to exist in these conditions, i mean just look at PB from AT who is a thousand times more hated but also the best character.

So Glimmer's likability yoyos significantly across the series, she's far from the most offensive abrasive friend character, but she's one of the least likable characters in She-Ra. This is down to the show not having any particularly unlikable characters apart from Shadow Weaver, if I'm honest, and Glimmer's constant rubbing against other far more liked characters such as Adora, Bow, Catra, so on.

Glimmer is annoying as a bare minimum and nasty as shit at other times, going through challenges that turn her against her friends and make her seek power and lash out against others.

However, these are flaws the show is hyper aware of and has baked into her story. They are all part of what makes her Glimmer, they are all what makes her so memorable and interesting.

It is the push and pull of Glimmer's courage, her desire to be there for her friends, with her insecurities about being weak, her failure to protect her mother, that mean... When Glimmer is handed the powers of the moonstone and offered tutoring in magic, you're giving a powerless beaten down puppy a MACHINE GUN. Of course she's going to use that power ineffectively.

Complexity doesn't always make a good character. If you look at Steven Universe or even Adventure Time, you have a lot of complex characters in that series who fail to serve any strong role, or who zigzag in so many directions taht you can no longer make sense of their motivations.

However, Glimmer's motivations are not only internally consistent across the entire series, the show gives her a complete character arc where she goes from a powerless brat, to a responsible commander, to a brokenhearted powerhouse, to someone who understands where she fucked up and is trying very very hard to lead her friends into a hopeful future using the very same character traits that led her to go astray - Her love, courage, and rage.

There are a couple of weaknesses for Glimmer. I would say mainly that the show goes too far to make her snap at Adora in season 4. I don't think she needed to go that far, and it would've been fine if they dealt with it properly in season 5, but Adora and Glimmer's relationship is completely brushed over in season 5. Adora and Glimmer aren't the only victims of this - there is Micah, and season 5 is the difference between Scorpia being a good character vs an "ok" character - but it is a very very good story, and it's hard to say how it could've improved these characters with the timeframe that it had.

Entrapta

Likable: Yes Complex: No Good: Yes

What makes Entrapta different from Micah and Glimmer and Sea Hawk is that she's a very basic, likable character, but she has a severe impact on every single season on the show. Entrapta is second to Catra, in my opinion, in terms of making a "good" character in She-ra, but she doesn't require any of Catra or Glimmer's complexity to get there.

Entrapta's character does not change much, but she does have challenges, which tie strongly to the base themes of She-ra - understanding, acceptance and love. Entrapta is thrown around the plot like a pinball but her movements are being noticed by all the other characters. When she joins the Horde, it changes both the Horde and the Rebellion. She puts Hordak on his path to independence. She's a big reason Catra descended into desperation, going through a repeat of the cycle of abuse. She's also why Adora and Glimmer went into hardcore martyrdom, though that has less to do with Entrapta herself and more to do with how her "death" triggered their prior conditioning. She did the runestone experiment, and created the portal. And when Entrapta is removed from the equation, it is a major catalyst for other characters to step into the hole she left behind.

But while these feats are impressive, they don't say much about Entrapta herself. What makes her a good character and not just a plot device?

Well, Entrapta has an internal logic and a strong sense of personality that is present throughout the show. While other mad scientists might act randomly and not have much character going on, Entrapta has an entire arc that has less to do with science and is instead focused on her goal of connection. She has a deep love for science but also for friendship and she wants to connect those things together, she wants to express love through her science and be liked for who she is.

That's what makes her compelling and likable. It's not that deep but it ties in to everything she does. It's what connects her to the other characters.

That's why Entrapta can seamlessly work with the good guys, and the bad guys, and be ideologically opposed to the true big bad of the series just as the rest of the characters are, without having to change much as a person or to be that complex. The show moves her around where she is most effective at serving its story themes as her current self, and she never has a period of inactivity in the story even when absent. And she never has to do anything that contradicts her previous actions.

I have strong opinions on other series. I'm thinking a lot about SU, because it's full of complex characters who get discarded, but also I'm thinking about Princess Bubblegum. I think I'd rate Princess Bubblegum differently for every season of Adventure Time.

#she ra #spop #glimmer #entrapta

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tippenfunkaport · 1 year

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Bow's Character Arc

There was a discussion on Twitter from people who were confused about Bow’s character arc and whether he had one (he very much does, and it’s actually one of the clearest / most spelled out in the entire show!). To help anyone experiencing that confusion and because it’s never a bad idea to understand how character arcs work if you want to be a writer/storyteller, I might as well break Bow’s character arc down for anyone who might find it helpful.

Buckle in, it's nerd time!

At the most basic, a character arc is a change (usually growth) a character goes through over the course of a story. Usually good (positive change arc) but sometimes bad (negative change arc). It’s very often a reversal aka the character is often in the exact opposite state by the end of the story than how they start it out. It can be trickier to follow in an ensemble story like SPOP because there are a lot of characters with parallel story lines going on and multiple arcs colliding in different ways, but She-Ra does a really good job of giving each of the four leads arcs (with Catradora as the main leads, Glimbow as the secondary) near equal time.

Yes, including Bow.

What I think throws people about Bow’s arc is it’s based on hypocrisy.

Meaning…

He encourages his friends to talk it out and share their feelings… while hiding his own feelings from his dads and repressing his frustrations with having to be the middle man between Adora and Glimmer (Season 4)

He declares that average people (such as the kitchen staff at Dryl) don’t need the princesses and are just as capable of fighting the Horde themselves… while he believes himself and his abilities inferior to Princess Entrapta’s

He reminds the others (esp Adora) about the need to accept help… while refusing any help for himself (think about “Don't worry about me. I'm the one who worries about you. Can we go back to that? Please?” in Pulse through to that moment when he agrees to let Glimmer take him to check on his dads in Return to the Fright Zone and literally leans on her)

I think a funny way to sum up his character issue is: Not me, though.

This arc progresses across all five season as he gradually changes. He starts the series out repressing his feelings from both his family and friends while doubting his abilities and refusing to ask for help (he IS Adora’s mirror, after all!). Over the course of the series he learns to express his feelings instead of bottling them up (The Beacon > Reunion > really all of Season 4 but it comes to head starting with Boys Night Out through Beast Island > Stranded), gains more confidence in his tech skills (The Frozen Forest > Signals > Flutterina > Mer-Mysteries > Corridors), and starts to learn to ask for help (The Beacon > Pulse > Return to the Fright Zone).

Which of course all culminates in The Heart Parts 1 and 2 where he finally wraps up all threads at once by

a) asking Scorpia to trust him (putting faith in someone else to help)

b) completing Entrapta’s program to unchip everyone (proving he IS as good a scientist as she is)

c) giving the speech to everyone on Etheria rousing the common people to fight Prime (average people can make a difference… which he now fully believes that includes him).

And while you can make the argument that confessing to Glimmer is part of his arc to share his feelings, the fact is that he completes a full character arc without ever behind reduced to just someone’s love interest because none of his character growth is tied to his romantic relationship at all (which was what the original tweet claimed). It's all his inner journey to have faith in himself and his abilities and how they relate to his friends and loved ones.

And thus the guy who starts the series as “only one around here who’s not a princess” with doubt in his tech abilities ends the series as confident Tech Master and future King of the regular people he sought to inspire, which is about as textbook a reversal as you can get.

Does it come out of nowhere?

His character arc progresses and takes significant focus in the following episodes….

S1:E6 System Failure

S1:E10 The Beacon

S2:E1 The Frozen Forest

S2:E3 Signals

S2:E7 Reunion

S4:E3 Flutterina

S4:E4 Pulse

S4:E7 Mer-Mysteries

S4:E8 Boys Night Out

S4:E10 Fractures

S4:E11 Beast Island

S5:E3 Corridors

S5:E4 Stranded

S5:E9 An Ill Wind

S5:E10 Return to the Fright Zone

S5:E12 Heart Part 1

S5:E13 Heart Part 2

That’s 17 episodes out of 52 which means his character development gets approximately 32% of the focus of the entire show… which for an ensemble cast like this where he’s one of four leads is just about dead on as it's over a quarter of the episodes.

That's a significant chunk of screentime with multiple episodes devoted specifically to his character journey.

Is his journey as flashy and action sequence-y as what Adora, Catra and Glimmer get? No, but it's a) a show marketed to girls so it makes sense they get the more cinematic scenes and b) his arc is more emotional and thus didn't need to hinge on big action like theirs did. Though considering the culmination of his arc is him as a 100 foot tall hologram speaking to the entire planet, I personally feel like that was pretty hard to miss.

If you look at all of this and still want to say that Bow did nothing or had no character arc, I think the thing to ask yourself is: why is it so important to you to discount the accomplishments and character growth of this character specifically?

In conclusion, this is the face Bow makes when he spent five season growing, changing and kicking butt as Tech Master and Voice of Reason and you say he did "literally nothing"...

#spop #shera #she ra #bow #meta #literary analysis #if I had more free time I would do a whole series analyzing the writing in this show #because it's so well done #spop bow #glimmer #adora #entrapta #tippen's posts #you all forget I'm a writing nerd until I bust out the craft talk don't cha?#i would like the record to show that I put the picture sets side by side #to show the start and end of each part of his arc #but tumblr ignored that layout

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 7 months

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So we all have issues with the character designs of the show. But what are some designs or design choices that especially irk you? For example, I hate how Frosta wears a heavy coat 24/7, or how I just hate Mermista’s design for a multitude of reasons.

ooo boy. yeah, there's a lot i dislike about the character designs.

adora wearing her horde uniform even after joining the alliance. they really couldn't give her a different attire? especially since being in the horde has been a traumatic experience that she was trying to reject and move on from. nate said that “the uniform gave her purpose” but the point of her arc should have been about her finding her own purpose, instead of still somehow being loyal to the horde. in my opinion, they should have given her an outfit change in s4, after she stands up to catra and cuts the last tie she had with the horde. also, i think i mentioned this before but i feel like they should have added something to her character design to make the distinction that she's not from etheria. i know this is what she looks like in OG she-ra too but if they could redesign the other characters, why make adora look almost the same as the OG? why not try something new? it would have been interesting if she had something unusual in her appearance that indicated she was a first one.

perfuma's entire design. idk why but her hair especially just looks off to me. the hairline looks weird and the way her hair is slicked back but suddenly has a lot of volume to the back. i feel like they could have given her some bangs or a different parting. her robe/cape thing also just looks incredibly impractical, i'm surprised it doesn't get caught on things, especially when she's fighting.

mermista is supposed to be a mermaid, yet we only see like two instances of her with a tail, one of which is her just sulking in a bathtub. they should have included her mermaid form a lot more, considering that's an important part of who she is.

bow. just bow in general. i like the crop top, it's cute. but the weird armor thing on one of his shoulders confuses me. what purpose does it serve? and his hair looks like a wig. it just looks unnatural, they could have put in a bit more work to make it look like actual hair. also he deserved an outfit change, he's supposed to be one of the main characters, yet he's treated worse than the princesses. and that's saying something.

the funny thing is that there were a lot of side characters in this show who had better character designs than the main characters. a bunch of the characters at the princess prom looked really interesting, huntara looked really cool, and the star siblings probably had some of my favourite character designs ever. idk why they didn't put that much effort into our main characters.

#spop critical #spop #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #she ra #anti spop

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teaandsmut · 4 months

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WIP Wednesday

I'm going to try posting snippets of my the fic I'm working on for WIP Wednesdays. I think "WIP Wednesday" might have suggested rules or something but I'm just going to post some small amount, and hopefully that'll encourage me to open the document to work on it.

The excerpt below is from Chapter 22 of Tactical Disadvantage, an E-rated canon universe Glitra fic. You can find chapters 1-21 here :)

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“Well, they’ve definitely got numbers on their side,” said Catra. She stood on a clifftop between Glimmer and Bow, who were dumbstruck as they stared into the canyon below. Melog crouched low next to the trio, their tail a deep amber with a slowly pulsing light as it swept back and forth across the ground.

Prime’s ship rose like a sinister spinning top from a wide chasm between sheer cliffs. Its narrow base was docked in a pit and attached to the ground by a series of metal arcs. Rows of bots and clones were arranged around it, spread in a defensive circle formation across the canyon floor. In the distance, Etheria’s forests and mountains were silhouetted beneath the midnight sky, while the green glow from hundreds of weapons turned the chasm into a lurid wound through the landscape.

The Whispering Woods were uncannily quiet, without whispers from wildlife or wind, and there was no sign of the other Rebellion fighters they expected to find mid-battle. The only sound was a low mechanical hum. Glimmer and Bow’s earlier bravado had abandoned them in the face of the daunting scene.

“Uh… But that’s never stopped you before, right?” Catra added hastily.

Glimmer pressed her hand over her mouth to hold back a frightened little sob. She turned her wide eyes to Catra.

#glitra #catra #glimmer #spop #wip wednesday #(i'm going to try to resist the urge to explain the context of the excerpts and just post them)

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ladyblueberrymuffin · 5 months

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Okay, I think enough time has passed that I can share my opinions on these two.

It could've been great. As it is, not really into it. And not because "Catra is abusive" or "It's toxic", or any stupid stuff like that. It's enemies to lovers, she's bound to do shitty things until her redemption arc, that's perfectly fine, I love messy characters.

My problem is that the show seems only interested in showing Catra's side of the story. She gets flashbacks, she talks about Adora all the time, we get to see all the ways in which Adora makes her life better. Adora... is kinda ignored.

I think that's why people don't like it. There is an unfair meta power dynamic. Catra is the more important one to the writers.

So we don't really get to see what Adora gets out of this relationship. We get to see all the ways Adora is accommodating to Catra, helps her feel comfortable after they reunited, lets her be her gremlin self, but where are the scenes where Catra does the same for Adora?

And people will talk about Catradora like this wonderful "I let you be yourself" comfort goes both ways, but it doesn't. That's my problem, it feels like it's always up to Adora to accommodate Catra, not the other way around.

I needed to see Catra really go out of her way to be a good girlfriend after her redemption arc. Like disgustingly sweet and trying her best every episode.

The most nice thing Catra does for Adora is talk her out of bad ideas. It happens in episode one, where Shadow Weaver is trying to convince her to leave her friends behind, and in the finale, where Adora is willing to die to save Etheria.

And like, offering counsel is certainly important in a relationship, but it doesn't really show this relationship in a good light when Catra's ultimate act of love is telling Adora "You're wrong".

Doesn't this feel kinda counterintuitive to her redemption arc? All the bad things she's done is because she was stubborn and unwilling to listen to Adora's ideas, but then her redemption is shown through her disagreeing with Adora's ideas anyway.

If Catra is allowed to be firm with Adora when Adora is being stupid, then so should Adora be able to be firm with Catra when she's being stupid, or antagonizing her friends.

This is a fictional relationship, so you're allowed to make them tease each other, or being mean to each other, but it can't be one-sided, because then it stops being cute, and just becomes frustrating.

The reboot introduced me to the franchise, and I delved deep, and really fell in love with the original 80's Adora, like I adore her (haha), my favorite superhero. And you know what? Reboot Adora is neat as well. So it bothers me double the show kinda seems disinterested in her and doesn't give her more agency.

I like that the 80s show focused on Adora more. I get Catra is interesting, but so is Adora, and I don't think the reboot really capitalized on it. I hope next time she pops up, maybe in the CG He-man show, or maybe in Masters of The Universe: Revolution (I am convinced this whole new season will be about her, and Adam grappling with the fact he has a sister, they're just hiding her from all the trailers, like they did with season 1's twist), she really gets the focus she deserves. You have a chance to really sink your teeth into her being a redeemed villain herself. In the DC comics, Adora was evil before she started questioning her loyalties to the Horde. Like, she killed people and she enjoyed it, her redemption arc wasn't much different from reboot Catra, so you really have a chance to make your main character as interesting as the villain.

#she ra #she ra spop #catradora #masters of the universe #masters of the universe revolution #he man #adora

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etheriadearie · 1 year

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Hi! First of all, love your blog!! I have a question that I would love to hear your thoughts on - I love your analysis of catra and think so much of it is spot on. I love hearing about how much of her actions have come from a place of love for adora.. I was wondering what about the scene where she cuts adora off the cliff to presumably fall to her death? was she really in that moment ok with killing her? what do you think about Moments like that where we see the physical harm she is willing

Catra's long walk through darkness to being the light of Adora's life-

This is such an important moment so thanks for bringing it up. To put things simply, Catra believes she’s not killing Adora. In fact, I'm certain she KNOWS she isn't. How am I sure? Because what we’re seeing play out is something deeper, that is, in fact, magic... (meta to come, but first…)

Pictured: four times Catra encounters Etheria's magic- (Promise/Promise/Portal/Heart Part2)

Promise is the most important episode of SPOP prior to s5, it really has no equal. The fractured history of their relationship before we meet them in ep1 is revealed, and as such, the reasons Catra feels she must be apart- all while there are actually three forces acting upon both Catra and Adora. I hear about two of them, but what's the third?

I'd encourage anyone reading this meta to carefully listen as Catra makes Adora fall. Because what we're hearing is important. (feel free to do so now or later)

youtube

🎶🎵 Do you hear it? 🎶🎵 Why does the music rise and then gloriously crescendo as Catra says her final goodbye?

The music rising here makes this an 🎶undeniably🎶 positive moment for Catra. This is -their- song, Promise, and it crescendos as Catra leaves Adora. So what's the deal?

Well, in short, it means that Catra leaving Adora is the right thing. How can that be. Well, Adora's willingness to sacrifice herself, and others, who she loves, to fulfill duty is wrong. Adora isn't becoming a hero like the Princesses and Light Hope tell her she is, she's walking into a millennia old trap. Catra has seen this behavior before, and Adora’s not choosing the strong path of a hero of love.

Adora’s false belief in duty means that she goes from fulfilling one manipulator's every wish, Shadow Weaver, to another when she gets the sword- the First Ones. And Catra knows in her gut that Adora is wrong, like she has been before. So, Catra -must- refuse to enable her any longer. In doing so, Catra is rightly asserting her own personal worth.

The narrative arc goes on to show us that in s1-4 Adora not a hero, and the reasons Catra is rejecting her during Promise are exactly why she's not on the true path of She-ra: By rejecting love, Adora cannot be a hero, she instead enacts a false form of false justice thats based in naive belief and others prejudices. This is why Catra wanted to go, because she’s seen it all before- where Adora rationalizes others' pain as part of her false duty, letting her anxious need to satisfy others control her.

Yes, the war is terrible, and Catra is directly involved in its cruelty. We should absolutely fault her for that. I'll of course talk about Adora's violence being similar, but Catra indeed rationalizes violence as necessary in a terribly biased way. Like many of you, I found her s4 portrayal hard to stomach and I didn't know if she could come back from who she seemed to have become. It took Nate Stevenson’s genius s5 for me to realize he had done something amazing with her and Adora’s arcs. Yet, in the subtext of the plot it's obvious that Catra shouldn't go with Adora, as well as that the war that they fight in s1-4 isn't quite what it seems... (more later)

In the most basic way possible, Catra would not want to go along with Adora considering her false behavior, but this is a decision reinforced by the power of magic, which we’ll discuss. Catra’s choices are rooted in survival always, (not in wanting power or proving herself, nuhuh) and the way Adora treated her was abandonment which encouraged the violence she was up against from their abuser. It's not surprising Catra would want to go her own way, and so the only way she sees for herself to survive is within the Horde. It's about survival, simply that.

And Adora, meanwhile, can't have her cake (trying to enact a false form of She-ra justice) and eat it too (have Catra’s love.) She feels loneliness where Catra used to be because of her own falseness that she’s acting out due to her traumas. Going on emotions alone there are good reasons for their separation, and both are wrong, but there's also a magical force here that's leading them both up to the true crescendo of Promise when Catra confesses her love…

But I digress, let's discuss the meaning of Promise, and the hidden magic behind what happens.

The 3 forces: two good, one "evil"

The first of the three forces acting on Catra and Adora in Promise is plain to see: the love which they have for each other, which ought to mean that they can heal their divide. But, as we know, their love is too fractured at this point to do so.

The next is our 'evil' force- Light Hope, who most people assume is controlling what they see in the Crystal Castle to manipulate and divide them towards the ends of enacting the First Ones plan of destroying Etheria. But, does this explanation really make sense, or does it lack something?

Why would Nate Stevenson have the music soar as Catra walks away from Adora if that were the case? Promise being so gloriously played as she does this makes this a positive moment for Catra, although melancholy, and not the moment of Light Hope's triumph in her dark plot. We don't hear this song played so gloriously again until s5 when Catra confesses her love, when the music reaches its true crescendo. Maybe the music here means that Catra mustn't go with Adora, for Adora’s own sake-?

This is what I mean by a third, mysterious and -magical- force, that's also acting on them, which is on the side of good, but is seeing the long game and trying to avert the larger disaster we see at the end of s4 when the weapon is activated- the evil First Ones plot nearly coming to fruition and destroying them all. This force gives Catra a push towards separating from Adora during Promise, where it is letting history play out so that Adora's falseness as its hero is exposed. This force is deep planetary magic...

The rising of the music is a hint its presence, but the direct evidence of it is seen during strange happenstances in Promise, which we’ll discuss, as well as further occurrences later on in the series. What this force is trying to accomplish is the halting of that evil plot, as that is paramount, and is working towards Adora developing into the hero of love she's supposed to be. Adora needs to have the strength of self to reject false manipulations and burdens, in order to defeat their true enemies all along- the First Ones and Horde Prime.

And, for Adora to confront her own wrong baises, Catra cannot enable her false rationalizations any more. So, the magic is acting on Catra, helping her to decide to go. It's not just her anger at Adora's rationalizing away her pain that's guiding Catra's decision to let Adora struggle alone as a false hero, the magic tells her that she's right. If Adora can't see how she's wrong, like how she didn't know Shadow Weaver continued to torture Catra, then being apart is what’s right for Catra and also what will enable Adora to come to terms with her own weaknesses. All of which needs to happen for Adora to realize the path of the hero of love, and for them to come back together in the end and win with the power of love.

This force guiding Catra is the deep magic of Etheria, the magic of love.

Razz describes magic as a source of beauty and of good, which cannot be controlled, it just is.

It is love, as well as the beautiful diversity of life, it is its own innate force- and love is more powerful than anything in the universe. Loving is perhaps the greatest thing we can do during our lives…

And, as we first see Catradora in episode 1, there's hardly any love, especially from Adora back to Catra. After all, Adora rationalized and enabled their abusers actions. Catra, in contrast, was still doing her best to love Adora as of ep1, to wake her from her anxious need to satisfy Shadow Weaver, to bring her back to love. But she had no way to reach her, because Adora had stopped listening to her long ago...

During Promise, Etheria's magic sees that Catradora is but a whisper of its potential, and it needs both of them to be strong by love. Adora may go on to learn to be a hero of love the hard way, making many mistakes with grave consequences, but Catra’s journey alone and the dark consequences of her actions will give her the wisdom she needs to be strong enough to be with Adora, who is the focus of over a millennia's of violence and deception. It's Catra who knows to double down on love, and by doing so is able to unlock Adora’s power of love that lets them win in the end.

But I digress- what does the guidance of this mysterious force look like, and what are its intentions?

The first uncanny moment of its intervention can be seen when Adora beings to fall and Catra catches her:

The way the plot has Catra so casually in position to catch Adora feels unnatural. That's because, as we’re watching this scene, Catra is in no position to save Adora, having distanced herself from Adora because she was pestering Catra about why she returned the sword, aggravating her.

Catra so illogically being out of place to save her here is a hint that there's something else going on. It's as if Catra knew Adora would fall before it happens…

This is what I mean by guiding force, because I believe this is exactly what we're seeing- where it's Etheria’s magic guiding this moment, not Light Hope. It sets a trust fall moment for them. And we can see how Adora doesn't get it:

We know in canon that Catra always loved Adora (also, Catra's tail flirt at the end ☺️), but the prejudiced viewpoint Adora shares here shows just how little she gets it. Like how she didn't know Catra continued to be tortured by Shadow Weaver, like how she didn't know the Horde was evil before Glimmer berates and guilts her over it, yet Catra did. Adora is far too focused on duty and satisfying others unfair expectations to see the truth, it was true before she switched sides and it's true afterwards, and that’s how she's not on the true path of She-ra.

We're also seeing the thesis moment of Promise here, because the rest of the episode plays out to show us just how wrong Adora is. We see the memory of Catra being tortured and then treated with death threats by their abuser, how Adora came up short in standing up to Shadow Weaver, and then how she went on to break the promise she made to Catra in order to satisfy their abusers expectations. Adora has a naive belief in duty due to her trauma that's being exposed and which prevents her from being the true She-ra.

During this moment of Catra catching Adora it's not so much that Adora misstepped, than that the magic changed the ground to make sure Adora would start to fall- setting up the trust fall, of which Catra is given privileged knowledge is about to happen, that exposes Adora’s false mentality for us to see.

::I suspect Catra likely feels this coming like hearing a whisper in the back of her mind. It is the first of many guidances from the magic... how it happens doesn't really matter, as we see further evidence of interventions on their behalves later in the series. But in Promise, she will act on this whisper, which confirms to her that her feeling that Adora is misguided are justified, like she has seen Adora be before. Since Adora had closed herself off emotionally to any guidance Catra tries to give her at this point in the series, Catra will choose to go alone instead.

So, there really is no way Catra would be with Adora at this point in the series; hoping she’d be with her with Adora’s falseness as a friend is hoping for something that was simply not there. Catra, as the person who Adora stopped valuing with love, will (unconsciously) play the part of Adora’s foil in s1-4 that's needed to expose the weakness that makes her no hero of love. This is where Catra's needed, and Etheria knows Adora’s failure to trust in love will lead to her failing as Etheria's hero, something that must be corrected if the cycle of violence is to ever actually stop- as she goes on to do at the end of s5. It's guidance is a nudge in the direction of Catra leaving so Adora will learn how she's a false hero.

Adora really does have a problem with letting others misguide her, Light Hope of course but also Glimmer, who forces false burdens on her unthinkingly. Adora must instead choose love over false duty and burdens, because love is what can guide her hero's journey and will make her strong enough to overcome the really difficult things that history is asking of her. Catra will help her do this gladly in s5, but don't make the mistake of assuming Adora in s1 was capable of accepting Catra's love and advice, she’s blocked it off from herself with her anxious trauma guided beliefs. In truth, Adora needed to change for the better just as much as Catra did.

Now, I realize that this theory may be hard to accept, because it means Etheria stans the war, if only a bit. But, with how much is wrong with the war, such as the prejudices the Princesses show while further being ignorant of how they're part of a First Ones weapon, there are no easy solutions to fixing this. Etheria needs them all to be stronger, but to be strong they must choose that strength for themselves- the strength of love, it cannot tell them what to do. Doing that produces no real strength.

They must learn- the hard way: Catra and Adora must choose to value love by their own will, but that doesn't mean Etheria isn't going to remain idle when so many seek to manipulate and destroy them, especially such as with Adora, who is the focus of Light Hope and the First Ones plots.

It's acting on them both here, but as it just so happens, there's another time the magic guides Catra during Promise-

The next time we see Etheria guiding Catra is as she watches Adora make the promise to her child self that was broken, and then Catra's child self stops to look back at Catra, her eyes full of meaning:

Catra's child self's actions here isn't a memory, it's an addition, one added by Etheria as it tries to communicate to Catra the gravity of Adora’s misguided behavior. I really can't accept the idea that Light Hope produced this moment, because she's not some perfect abuser. There is way too much nuanced emotion occurring.

Etheria’s magic, on the other hand, is a living thing- even if not human, it intimately understands love as a powerful force that exists in nature, and it's telling Catra to not enable Adora's false heroes path any longer. Not when she values love so little as to give in to prejudice and allow others ignorant and/or self centered narratives to guide her.

Their real enemies- the First Ones and Horde Prime, will be able to exploit Adora’s fragile guilt complex against her- by accepting the sword, she stepped into their trap. Because of that, in s1-4 a thousand years of manipulations are right on track to give the First Ones what they want- destroying Etheria, something that can only be stopped once and for all if Adora accepts her true self, her loving heart that makes her the hero of love. And Catra, while the Horde IS wrong, is providing the proving grounds needed for Adora to develop her own hero's way by allowing a false conflict to continue.

Adora remains misguided all the way until s4, when she starts to trust her own feelings, laying the groundwork for being the true She-ra we see in s5. It really does take her this long to do this, she really turns the corner on it for the better when she voices total rejection of the First Ones control in s4 as she smashes the sword, instead speaking her own mantra based on love. And, this rejection of the roles made for her by others happens in large part because of Catra’s unwillingness to accept Adora as someone who enacts naive and false justice. Even if it's hard to watch, Catra refusing to enable Adora was correct.

::As Catra's child self looks at her, magic is trying to tell Catra that following Adora now would mean nothing would ever actually get better, and that her behavior will result in further disaster. Catra decides then that following Adora would be the wrong thing to do...

::So no: Catra isn't trying to kill Adora at all, or even at any point in the series. We can take her words at the Battle of Brightmoon, that she knew Adora wouldn't die, to heart. Not that it's also easy to see how she knows that they are inside a simulation, and that on some level none of it is real, and that she therefore knows Adora is not in real danger if she falls.

But, Catra can feel that something else is trying to tell her that Adora is wrong, confirming her suspicions that Adora is on a false path once again. This force is Etheria’s magic, and it will guide her yet again...

That's the short answer, but we should talk about the other evidence of Etheria’s guidance and it's implications. Next up in our journey: the Portal episodes.

Later Evidence of Catra's connection to Etheria’s magic

Etheria’s next guidance happens during the Portal event, when all hope seems lost and Etheria is vanishing towards non-existence. The veil that separates magic and reality thins, and because of it, we get Corrupted Catra, returned from death instead infused with knowledge gifted by Etheria’s magic about She-ra’s of past to teach Adora that she is playing into the First Ones trap, read the full meta here if confused, or here's a handy summary:

As the world is collapsing into nonexistence, Etheria’s magic takes this opportunity to give Catra all of the knowledge she could ever desire that Adora and the Princesses are on a false path that’s naive, ignorant, and will lead to the fruition of the evil plans made for them by the First Ones, as well as giving Catra the whole history behind She-ra and the wrongness that’s allowed this to come to pass.

In s4 Catra at first takes this given knowledge to mean she must pursue renewed war against the Princesses, as well as against her abuser, >whom they are harboring<, before realizing her knowledge of the history of events leading to this wrongness means she’s in a unique position to help Adora overcome it all during s5- for the sake of love and survival. Probably a discussion for another time, so I digress.

The final major whisper happens in s5 while Adora is dying in the Heart chamber. As she is slipping towards death having given in to despair, Catra is able to save her by sharing the dream with her with Etheria’s help: it links their consciousnesses together. Read the full meta above if confused, or quickly here:

This isn't a random vision Adora has, they both see it and it's the personification of Catra’s love brought to life with some help from Etheria’s magic, to show Adora what she has to live for. It's magic, and yeah it's tapping into Adora's own repressed feelings as well as Catra's, and it can do so because while the Heart may be a machine, the magic inside it isn't- it has its own living consciousness and it understands what their love means. Etheria itself powers this moment, it is their biggest shipper- it helps them win in the end!

To conclude; each time it has an opportunity to act, like it does during Promise (because they are inside a simulation), the magic of love does so to help and guide Catra. And, by association, Adora. It's with Catra’s guidance that Adora is strong enough to absorb the Heart and win, as Catra is the one who brings Adora back to the power of love. Catradora love is so powerful that it can save the universe, but by theory, it doesn't happen without a little help from the wisdom of Etheria magic- and its innate knowledge of the power of love.

This masterful level of narrative arc is something I'm certain Nate Stevenson is capable of. And so, Adora and Catra aren't apart to make the plot work, it's a necessary part of Etheria’s magic guiding them towards the power of love, and helping them towards correcting the systematic wrongs of their world once and for all. While that equals Catra being on the wrong side of history, her resistance is part of proving to Adora how she is wrong as a hero. It was necessary.

But aside from that, let's talk about how Catra uses violence, since this AMA directly brings it up-

SPOP is a great show where there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Because of that, I think people tend to make up assumptions to fill in gaps they can't yet figure out. It's only natural, but one way I feel a lot of SPOP fans go wrong is when they suggest that Catra enjoys and seeks violence.

That's not really true- the data doesn't back it up. For example, Catra always holds back from killing. It's true in every fight, it's true like a dozen times over while she has Adora captured and at her mercy, but let's talk about the one time Catra had every reason to feel justified in killing.

This would be in s4 when Hordak comes after her. There's no doubt Hordak has deadly intent, to maim or to kill her, so it makes total sense that Catra would justify killing out of self defense. But instead, she goes to elaborate lengths to make Hordak land the final blow upon himself.

Catra sets him up to be done in by his own anger- he damages the forge equipment which crushes him while trying to kill her. So, even at the point of extreme personal peril, while Catra knocks him into the path of the falling equipment, she's making sure her own hands are clean. She really abhors killing- and she's fighting in control, always.

Therefore, any time we assume Catra is trying to kill is suspect of our own prejudices. She chooses not to, that's a line she chooses not to cross. I can say personally as someone that had to win fights brutally to protect my life and sanity, that I did have pride in winning those fights. That's what you're seeing on Catra's face. But, I can also tell you that everything about actual fighting disgusted me, and Catra is the same.

Catra grew up in a system where the violence was always going to come for her, fighting back was necessary and right. I can't empathize enough how being in such a position changes your outlook on life, and if you didn't experience her situation, you might not understand her. And yes indeed, as time goes on, Catra’s reliance on fighting does run out of control, so much so that it leads to her losing conscious control over it, such as shocking Entrapta and opening the Portal. But to that, let me say, in how Catra felt threatened by her abuser at that moment, it's surprising she didn't snap *sooner*- everyone has a breaking point, and after careful watching, I'm certain Catra considers that moment her greatest failure.

But hey, what fun is a meta without comparing her to her counterpart? What we actually see is that when put under pressure, Adora loses all control over her emotions and lashes out. This is in addition to how she’s self destructive, as we all know.

Adora does, in canon, almost kill Catra multiple times. I'm not even going to discuss Legend of the Fire Princess, you can read a discussion here. Instead, let's look at the Battle of Brightmoon.

How is it so easy for Catra to make Adora lose all control?

In part this difference in fighting with control comes from how Catra grew up under mortal danger from their abuser, she learned to be prepared to defend herself, either physically, or mentally against torture. She became hyper vigilant, and learned where the line between life and death stands, as well as her own breaking points. She learned how to act so she could hide her emotions, she sees bad things coming from miles away, and she prepares for them. When she leaves Adora in Promise, she can tell Adora is being manipulated yet again, reason enough to not follow her.

Adora, in contrast, was the target of the manipulations and the teacher's pet, and as such was supposed to win every contest, so she was treated that way by her teammates. At the moment she finds the sword, Adora is a person who’s never actually been in a fight, she doesn't know how to control her fear or her anger. Everything she's done was a training exercise. So, her emotions run out of control all the time.

All Catra had to do to make her snap was play on her guilt complex and fear of failing, something Shadow Weaver instilled in her to make her die for sacrifice, yet Catra can't stop herself from seeing Adora as being weak for giving in to it. It is indeed a weakness, and meanwhile, when Adora left she passed total judgment against everyone in her old life on the word of a manipulative computer program. She fails to try to understand them and goes on to try to win the war against them through extreme violence alone, she does this not out of some great moral clarity- she does it mostly out of guilt over how Glimmer and Angella make her feel bad about it- yet Glimmer is one the most flawed and prejudiced characters we see.

Adora is failing that critical test, and her behavior mirrors a lot of irl behavior we see in people who claim and want to be good but end up hurting others because of their naive understanding of what good actually is. Also, remember that Catra does come full circle in s5 to see how Adora was hurt in order to be controlled by guilt, and helps her get past it. She's the one person who can really get through to Adora on this matter. Catra is the only person who ever really tries to put the brakes on Adora’s need to anxiously satisfy others, not going along with her was part of this, and in s5 she insists that Adora stops doing it yet again.

Catra continues to object to Adora's misguided choices in s5, and she deserves praise for this, even if in the past she refused to go with Adora and fought the war instead. Adora’s behavior has to stop sometime, yes she laid the groundwork for it in s4 such as developing her mantra and smashing the sword, but we see how she's still not past what her abuser did to her in her decisions in s5. It'll take Catra's help to break past this, which we'll discuss more below.

So when it comes to violence we're supposed to consider this dichotomy: of Adora's unstable mentality and Catra's careful application of force. Nate is playing our presumptions against us by doing so, and asking us to look deeper. Because, when we investigate violence, we see it's actually Catra who can meter her violence to the situation, and it's Adora who's violence runs out of control. Catra uses violence precisely, usually as a tool for survival, she doesn't enjoy it. These are fights that were always going to come for her and she's not running from them. During s1-4, Catra is very deliberate with her choices, you can't really say the same about Adora.

Final thoughts: Catra's understanding of survival is what's most important to saving Adora's life-

Ultimately, Catra's arc is about love and not this magic, of course. And in this a big part of her arc is about convincing Adora not to die- Catra, who refused to die all along, must be strong enough to help Adora survive- by showing her how the choice of living is stronger than sacrificing to fulfill her (false) burdens.

We watch along as Catra goes through trauma and learns to faces it head on, she comes to terms with in a way that Adora couldn't... as the focus of a millennia long scheme meant to make her fail. Catra's relationship with trauma, and her experiences of nearly letting herself get killed because of those traumas, allows her to be a guide for Adora in s5 and her help is what powers Adora's final transformation.

This is something the magic helps her to do- because what it's doing is giving her the truth behind it all, so that she can be free to choose love. 😎 Yet, her s1 choice to survive, and to be apart from Adora who endangers her, is not the wrong choice, because, in fact, surviving will be Catra's most important lesson to Adora while she saves her.

Which is to say that we ought to recognize Catra's choosing survival, as opposed to Adora's acceptance of martyrdom, as a form of strength, even if she's working for the wrong side. A lot of what Catra does is inarguably wrong but she's also right about a lot- she's right that Adora betrays love and can seemingly rationalize any act in the name of corrupted duty, Catra barely survives Adora trying to literally kill her multiple times- and no, Catra doesn't ever try to kill her in return.

And Adora chose to rationalize it all in the name of She-ra not out of some great moral calling, but out of an anxious need to satifify others which their abuser instilled in her in order to control her. Catra knows all this and is right to assert that Adora's attempts at being She-ra in s1-4 won't 'fix' anything... and that she'd just continue to get hurt if she went with Adora. So, Catra puts being with Adora on pause and does what she feels she must do to persist- before rejoining Adora in s5 once their most dangerous enemy discovers them all, and helps Adora to chose survival, too.

Adora's view point, in short, is self defeating and pretty nihilistic, whereas Catra's really isn't- she is trying to live when everyone else, Adora included, seems to want her dead.

You cannot really be selfish in demanding to live- life is sacred, and Catra has respect for her sacred right to live that we all have. If people tell you to die for the narrative, as Adora tries to do, what's right is to reject it. Catra is the one who tells Adora not to die because she understands this fundamental truth. Catra shows that sometimes violently rejecting other people's control, if they're trying to kill you, is what's right. And yes, she does take it too far in s1-4, but it's all part of the story of how she surivies long enough to get past her trauma in order to be able to help Adora in s5.

Her understanding of survival is so important to share with Adora because that's where she's strongest yet Adora is weakest... It's also true that Catra understands love much better than Adora, we see that in her love confession, but her telling Adora she's got her love to live for isn't all she does to save her. She also instructs Adora on the wisdom of what it means to fight while respecting your own right to live. Catra, who was told by Shadow Weaver that her life had no value and should just give up and die, knows very well what it means to fight while never giving up.

Catra's words "you've never given up on anything, not even on me" are so important because she's telling Adora not to die like her enemies want her to do, while simultaneously paying respect to Adora's newfound heroic path, telling Adora that she believes in the hero Adora's trying to be. In this moment, Catra knows Adora must chose her right to live, that which is her sacred right, or they are all doomed, and that Adora isn't seeing that choice as the fundamental right that it is. She knows Adora is expecting to sacrifice herself, which she's doing out of guilt.

Catra's words instead help to show Adora how not giving up fundamental right to life is the right choice- she starts by acknowledging how Adora is fighting for the right reasons- such as her mentioning that Adora never gave up on her and returned to save her from Horde Prime- a decision shows that Adora is a true hero. A true hero does not rationalize away someone's death as necessary when they know the person about to die has goodness in them, Adora saw that truth behind Catra's actions, so her rescuing Catra was right. It was a breakthrough moment for Adora, nevermind that she needed to save Catra for the sake of the love they had for each other before Shadow Weaver tried to break each of them...

But, if you know you're fighting for the right reasons, then you must insist on living to prove it through your actions- you can't die to noble sacrifice. Because operating under that belief is a form of weakness. Adora's constantly doing this means she's inherently weak, and all while the world that Adora wants, one that's right and just, can come true- but only if Adora chooses to survive in order to prove it. She has to continue being She-ra. Survival is necessary, because without it there can be no better tomorrows. It's not wrong to want to survive.

So with these words Catra is telling Adora to survive- Catra survived many close calls with death leading up to this moment so that she can tell Adora how to not to give up and die. Through her experience of surviving, Catra finds a way to save Adora from her own self defeating beliefs.

Catra in s5 is a person who's prepared to be her better self- she's processed her trauma to get past it, and is seeing that survival cannot be the only answer to living, you've also got to have something to live for. And that's loving Adora. So after all of that, Catra is not going to let Adora fail, falling to the self destructive habits their abuser instilled in her, and instead shows Adora the way past it all. As the person in the relationship that who's processed her trauma. You have worth. We all have worth! And believing that isn't selfish.

So, it had to be both things, not just Catra telling Adora she's in love with her and she's got that to live for. Adora also has to choose to survive.

So there was no simple answer because of the depth of the problems facing Etheria. They are being lead by princesses who are naive, self involved and ignorant- something Adora blindly devotes herself to. Catra refusing to go along with Adora is a big part of her getting past that misguided framework to be a real hero who can save the universe and stop the cycles of violence for good. And ,if Catra had gone with her? It almost certainly would have resulted in the destruction of Etheria when Light Hope manipulated Adora into activating the heart while having no idea of the consequences. No simple answers- because the princesses are not right in their ways, never mind that the Horde brang war upon them.

The strength of Catra's belief in choosing survival is what leads her to being able to guide Adora past her self destructive nature to save the universe.

When Catra kisses her thus imbuing her with he power of love, we see Adora transformed into someone fundamentally stronger, she's the embodiment of goddess lesbian power that we love. Why Adora becomes so much more powerful is because she is now fighting with an understanding of both parts of what it means to fight from a true position of strength:

To fight while insisting on your sacred right to live,

And to fight with something to live for and the belief that your morals are good and must go forward. Only when you do both can you be your most powerful- you have to have enough respect for yourself to believe you deserve to live!

Adora understood the second point to a degree, but not the first. She was never going to be a complete hero without Catra showing her how to value herself. Now knowing both lessons, Adora is a stronger She-ra than any before her- and is one that can stop the cycle of violence for good.

Catra's story as a message to people like us who survived-

In s5, what we're seeing is a fully emotionally realized Catra, a person who has matured and surpassed her traumas and has gained the wisdom and clarity needed to save Adora, by sharing these hard learned lessons with her. And, we only get to see a fully realized Adora after Catra shares these truths with her- an Adora who can finally step past the trauma thinking their abuser instilled in her.

S5 Catra proves to us that she's this person over and over, she's reclaimed that she must trust in love, yet I still see people doubt her. People sometimes say Catra's transformation in s5 was rushed, but it really wasn't- if you consider how after Etheria's magic showed her the dark truth behind it all, then Catra was in a position to choose the better path- after going through the worst and seeing the truth for what it is. This is her therapy- it's the truth that she's shown by Etheria that gives her the choice to see past her trauma.

Catra's story is a tribute to knowing that if you're in a dark place where you've been hurt like Catra was- know that not giving up is what's right, know that you have a scared right to live, and that your abusers are wrong. Keep fighting, keep believing. Sometimes that fighting will get ugly. But, this attitude she shares with Adora, of never giving up, it allows her to be the all powerful lesbian goddess we love her as. Nate is telling us to not give up- through Catra's story and further showing us how this wise and mature Catra has the strength to help Adora past her trauma as well. He's also telling us to not give up on love. It's one of the most brilliant narrative arcs of all time!

Trust in Catra! Trust in your sacred right to living! Huzzah!

But we're not done explaining Catra's actions, are we? Let's talk about the wrongness of war she's leading on Etheria...

Yes, war is always wrong, but here's what I meant earlier when I said the war on Etheria isn't quite what we expect-

It is, I believe, the canonical truth that Catra did not preside over a army that was committing genocide- one of the most common criticisms of SPOP. But, how is it possible this story is different from the other war stories we're been constantly fed (such as ATLA)? Simply put: it's because Hordak's army had no need to commit genocide.

Do you really think Nate would wants us to skip over this catching point? No, instead Nate decided to cleverly sidestep this issue.

In SPOP, there's never any direct evidence of Hordak's army doing as such, yet we're shown in all explicitness that Horde Prime and the First Ones ARE genocidal. Who were the real enemies all along. That's important. Why Hordak's army doesn't gun down civilians is because the villagers in SPOP never fight in the war, they never ever raise arms against him. It's the Princesses who fight, and furthermore this is reinforced when we see that most of the anger the villagers voice is directed towards the Princesses, not the Horde.

Genocide is mostly motivated out of two factors- one: hatred and racism- let's just say that simply doesn't exist on Etheria. But the second reason is to remove the others side ability to fight back- if everyone's dead, there can be no uprisings. But, the villagers never fight. So, Hordak's army had no need of shoot-to-kill orders.

Contrast this to Horde Prime and the First Ones explicit genocidal intentions, add in the villagers anger not being directed at the Horde but instead at the Princesses for abandoning them to war, and you've got the full story behind how the war was being fought.

Assuming Hordak's army was gunning down civilians is instead a presumption carried over from other stories, but Nate set us up to expect that then subverted the expectation by showing no such thing- and by showing the real enemies explicit genocidal thinking, was asking us to look deeper. SPOP is a show which subverts our presumptions at every turn in order to make a better story. This certainly doesn't absolve Catra of being wrong, but I think we should understand that she's wasn't directing a genocide- I don't think she was capable of doing that.

Catra actions are in no way perfect and we're not supposed to think they are, but I really think Nate intentionally did this so that this catching point would not detract from the overall narrative:

Which is to say that the way Adora tries to be She-ra in s1-4 was never going to 'fix' anything, she's a proof of the flawed heroes stories we saw too often growing up. Victory would be miraculous and not explained, always dues ex machina, and unsatisfying. In SPOP, Adora goes through actual character growth to become the person who can change the world, and she doesn't do it alone. Catra's love is what shows her the way to be better, and it's not easily earned or miraculously given- they struggle to understand and accept each other. And that makes for a much more satisfying conclusion, with a kiss that's so believable that I don't expect to see a more meaningful kiss in media for the rest of my life. Thank you, Nate.

Thanks for reading. I hope I did an ok job discussing a very sensitive topic. This has been the hardest thing I've ever written.

::psps: this isn't the tell all for this theory, it could probably use its own discussion post so let me know your questions.

If you enjoyed it, let me know with a like and please pass it along with a reblogg if you can! We writers really appreciate them most of all because of how tumblr works! Thanks a ton.

Thanks again,

-EtheriaDearie

PS:S: Happy Pride and Nimona release tomorrow!! Yay!! 🏳️‍🌈🥳

#she ra #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #catradora #she ra meta #catra #wlw

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robinreflects · 10 months

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Okay, I NEED to hear your thoughts on a few issues I have with SPOP (I also mention TOH a bit towards the end but mainly trying to focus this ask on SPOP). Also, it's long as hell, so if you want to answer it in multiple parts that's totally fair.

I know the writing of the show just generally speaking isn't the best, however the one thing I thought was executed best was the villains of the show.

Shadow Weaver was a cruel maternal figure in Catra and Adora's lives, even so to Glimmer in Season 4 when she had felt isolated from her friends (her father too, in the past). With a grand sacrifice in the names of who she practically considered her daughters, she had atoned for her actions throughout the series, but regardless, she left serious impacts on the characters' mentalities. Whether she was forgiven by the characters was left vague, as if they weren't too sure how they felt themselves. I really liked that aspect, as the experience of mixed feelings when an abusive parental and/or authority figure dies can be very impactful for viewers. She was someone lustful for power and control, but I do genuinely think she had a soft spot for Adora at the very least, which is why she had tried isolating her from the others in her squadron so often. I think it was in an effort to harden her resolve so her potential wouldn't be wasted, though of course, this was not done in a positive or healthy manner.

Hordak attempted to conquer Etheria in an effort to be recognized by Horde Prime. But then he meets Entrapta, who helped him with repairing his disability aid (that being the First Ones tech to keep his body stable, the very thing Hordak was shunned and abandoned for by Prime) and receiving validation for the "imperfection" he referred to his disability as ("Imperfection is beautiful! At least, to me."). That was the inciting moment where his motivation and goals shifted, but due to Catra's actions — her attacking Entrapta, then fabricating a lie that he had once again been abandoned, and later on being unapologetically ableist and apathetic by removing his aid, the aforementioned tech, and having him literally crawl on the floor in pain before her to address her power over him — he returned to prior goals until Double Trouble spilled the tea and sent him on a rampage after Catra. (And yes, I haven't forgotten the scene where he cuts off her oxygen, but she's not shown to be an asthmatic or having any respiratory issues, so that's shitty yes, but not ableist. And that was in either S1 or early S2, before he had really encountered Entrapta, so that's another thing to keep in mind.) Skip through the Horde Prime mess, and he ends the series being sent to Beast Island to clean up according to Stevenson, whereas characters like Catra (who quite literally fucked more shit up than him somehow with the portal, nearly destroying the world) get off scot-free because...She got the heaping dose of writer's favoritism, I guess. Also his atonement for his actions was stated as Word Of God by Stevenson on Twitter, not explicitly in the show, so it's completely fair to take it with a grain of salt and/or have it be up to viewers' interpretation.

I'll also put Entrapta and Scorpia here real quick, but I'll keep it brief cause this is already so long. I think Entrapta is by definition chaotic neutral, where she will go to lengths and extremes in the name of science and personal interest, but doesn't care about the war or which side she appears to be on. Yes, she absolutely appears to be on the side of the horde by the end of S1, but exclusively because they offer the most tech for her to work with (that and the other princesses never appeared to be fond of her…); she never seems to pay the war any mind. I thought Scorpia was a decent enough character, I could tell from the get-go she would be eventually redeemed and while I don't think she's perfect, her redemption was leagues better than the other arc I'm thinking of…

I decided to put Catra as her own bullet point cause WHEW there's a lot. Catra as a character was objectively best when she was a villain. And considering how she crossed the threshold of "in too deep," beyond the lengths even HORDAK was willing to go (again, literally almost ending the world out of nothing but pure spite and hatred for Adora """abandoning""" her), all because she couldn't abuse Adora and blame her for everything bad that happened to her anymore, it was strong antagonist characterization. One that the writers poorly chose to just throw out the window at the last second for some Starco-esque endgame for fanservice/the creator's favoritism that DID NOT feel deserved. Yeah, Starco. I said it.

While having a relationship between two lesbians (if memory serves me right, feel free to correct me if one of them's sapphic) is very important for representation in media, Catradora had to have been one of the worst examples of good lesbian/WLW representation I've seen to date. It's toxic, it's abusive, and Adora's got some serious Stockholm syndrome with Catra being her abuser. It is genuinely unsettling how many people act like it's healthy and normal or will excuse it because "Catra has [Insert disorder/disability here] so the abusive behavior is justified" when explanations for behaviors =/= valid excuses. Adora for sure had PTSD but she never acted as irrational and cruel despite her upbringing.

And also, that is extremely ableist shit to say, too. Just because someone has a mental disorder or disability of some kind doesn't excuse them to just be a disgustingly horrible person to the people they claim they care about. If Catra REALLY loved and cared for Adora, we would've seen an effort on her end to change the shitty fucking behaviors she exhibited. But when Adora goes through hell and back to save her sorry ass, she goes right back to the abusive, manipulative, bitchy person she's always been. Hell, her "adorable confession scene" IS JUST HER MANIPULATING ADORA BY SAYING ADORA HAD CONSTANTLY ABANDONED HER WHEN SHE NEVER DID THAT. ONCE. Hearing the "just this once, stay" part at the end sounds like it came from an abusive ex begging Adora to get back together, not a heartfelt romantic gesture from a soon-to-be lover.

Not to mention the odd implications of Shadow Weaver being akin to a mother figure to BOTH of them (didn't she call them her children???) throughout their lives, as well as Kyle believing they, Lonnie and Rogelio to be his siblings, family, before Lonnie yells at him…Like, the fact even ONE of the squadron members saw the others as siblings ALONGSIDE S.W.'s maternal shtick, it's a huge weird ass red flag. I'm not gonna claim it's incest because I don't believe that was the intention by the writers, but they also heavily imply such with the aforementioned information the show provides...They should've just had Catra and Adora be friends from separate squadrons if they didn't wanna make it feel so icky (as if the abusive shit doesn't make the relationship gross enough). Lonnie yelling at Kyle saying "we were never a family" or whatever feels like the writers speaking through the character to justify Catradora being canon, especially with how the characters act around each other in S1 and in flashbacks. I have siblings, that's shit siblings do. Don't even get me started with Kyle and Rogelio dating in the end, either...Idc what ANYONE says, he literally stated explicitly that he viewed Rogelio as a brother for most of their lives, that makes me ill. I have gripes with both Steven Universe and The Owl House as well, don't get me wrong, but I feel Garnet/Rupphire and Lumity were both objectively better written lesbian/sapphic pairings (my personal favorite of the two being Garnet), as well as the positive and healthy representation lesbians and sapphics heavily deserve. The SPOP writers completely dropped the ball with the enemies-to-lovers bit, like, horribly. Catra post-S4 is just a horribly written """redeemed""" character who should've stayed bad to the bitter end ala S.W.

I feel like both SPOP and TOH's writing integrity is severely diminished when it comes to the Tumblr-humor thing you had mentioned in a previous post. I think if not for Eda, I genuinely wouldn't have continued TOH past the first couple of episodes because of it, and it only got worse over time, especially in the last couple of S3 episodes. Which one was worse, or if both were the same as far as the humor goes, I wanna know your thoughts. I haven't seen SPOP all the way through since about a year ago, but I feel like it wasn't as bad as TOH — at the very least, to my memory of the show, SPOP knew not to crack dumbass one liners in the midst of a genuinely serious moment.

I'll put this here as well, but if you can think of anything else to discuss PLEASE do so, I want to hear all the tea.

Oh my god Hi! So sorry for the late response!

I'll separate this into bullet points so it's easier to navigate

She-Ra's writing

Shadow Weaver

Hordak (+ Entrapta and Scorpia)

Catra(dora)

She-Ra and Representation (Double Trouble)

Ok so let’s get this out of the way first: I am not a fan of She-Ra, even on my first watch I heavily disliked it. I was one of the people that watched it in its original run, I tuned in right after season 2 was released, circa a week or so later. And even THEN, in 2019, as a wee little 15-year-old, who has JUST realized that I wanted to pursue writing as a career, I noticed just how inconsistent the writing is.

So, She-Ra’s writing, just overall writing, is something I’ve always had an issue with. A lot of the characters felt inconsistent. Frosta is the first example that comes to mind. She is a child, however, in season 1 she is presented as a mature, strict, amazing leader of an entire kingdom, however, later on, she’s just dumbed down to a “haha annoying child” for attempts at some incorrect-quote-esque dynamic and dialogue. You've mentioned it too with The Owl House and She-ra has the exact same problem, however, I'd say on a much more jarring and apparent level. With the Owl House, as annoying and out of pocket as these incorrect-quote-esque jokes are, they're still kids, they're children and I'd say The Owl House has a much more slice of life/comedy approach to its writing than what She-Ra intended to have. As I've said, with She-Ra it's more jarring, since it's more of a fantasy/adventure/action/drama type of show, at least that's what it was going for, the jokes stand out a lot more, and feel as though they're just haphazardly thrown in there for the sake of fan service. Which, in turn, makes the characters feel as though they lack dimension. Adora is my prime example of this, there have been so many instances where, for the sake of fan service, she has been dumbed down to the very popular "stupid strong golden retriever" type of character in a sapphic dynamic.

A character that stood out to me as one of the better-written ones is Shadow Weaver. Her dark and brooding nature was always interesting to me, not to mention Lorraine Toussaint did a fantastic job. Something I admire about her character writing is that they never made her abuse over the top, they never made her too loud or too abusive to the point you can point a finger and say "Well that's just a stereotypical abuser in media!", which, again, I really appreciate about the show. I won't say they made her realistic, but out of all the characters, I'd say she came closest to being such.

Hordak I didn't and still don't have much opinion on, his overall villain characterization and motivation are pretty standard, especially for, what's marketing itself as, a kid's cartoon. What did stand out to me, however, was his covert disability. Now what do I mean by covert? It's pretty clear he's disabled. Covert in terms of symbolism, I have not been able to find what actual disability his disability is supposed to represent, I've seen people interpret it as diabetes, I've seen people interpret it as an autoimmune disease, while I myself have interpreted it as a heart transplant/ heart disease and his disability aid as a pacemaker. As my grandfather was one of the first and longest-living people with a heart transplant + pacemaker in Croatia, I've seen many side effects of it and it aligns quite well with Hordak's disability. Though it didn't feel like blatant sympathy points (unlike some other character that I will talk about later), it gave him more characterization outside of being "a big bad villain guy". His and Entrapta's story is one that I found quite endearing and it felt like it flowed naturally, no pushing them together, no forcing it, it felt genuine and nicely paced. Scorpia is also a very sweet character, nothing much to say about her except I really enjoyed it whenever she was on screen. Her character design is one of my favorite's in the show and don't even get me started on Lauren Ash because she did a FANTASTIC job!

Catra though is an entirely different story. I never liked her. On any level. Her as a villain also didn't sit right with me, she never felt like a true villain and in the end never felt like a true "hero" or good guy, hell I can't even label her as an anti-hero. I can just label her as... Catra; a weak attempt to write a morally gray antagonist. Or rather, a lot of cliche dialogues and plot points jumbled into one of the antagonists. I think her weak characterization ties in with the fanfiction-esque style of writing I talked about earlier. I also can't sympathize with her character at all, not for a lack of trying or my prejudice, but because the writer's favoritism and the writer's sympathy are ALWAYS pushed onto Catra so much. The consequences of her actions are practically non-existent and when they are, they are framed as though it's the other character's fault (ie. Catra being alone after Adora left.).

What I mean by that is, most of the bad things that happen to Catra, do not happen to her because of something she did, but rather her circumstances, she just keeps doing bad things and gets away with it. There are no consequences for anything that she does. This might be a stupid analogy, but let's say I slap one of my friends and they do not react, however, when I get home my mother slaps me. These are two separate occurrences that, while they do evoke empathy for me (or rather the lyrical I in this hypothetical) since I am being abused, have nothing to do with each other in terms of consequence for what I have done to my friend. Now, if I slap my friend and they either slap me back or perhaps yell at me for doing so, that is a consequence of the action I have done. We rarely see the latter with Catra, in most of the abuse scenes, most of her breakdowns, and most of the scenes that are framed in a way that we as the viewer as supposed to feel bad for Catra in, are just sympathy points. They are FRAMED (writing, voice acting, editing, pacing of the scene) so we feel bad for her and almost as to excuse everything she has done as some kind of defense mechanism almost. This is getting a bit long and I still have 2 points I want to talk about, so I will stop the Catra portion here. Feel free to ask for other specifics or a better explanation if you want!

And now we go onto, Catradora. From my previous section, you might have guessed I am not a fan of the relationship. As much as I'd love to go into detail about how abusive Catra is throughout all of the seasons, their relationship was written as a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance, so I'll disregard the portion of the time they were enemies in. Nevertheless, even if you do cut out that portion of their relationship, they are still quite a toxic and abusive couple. When they were growing up, Catra didn't let Adora hang out with the other kids, going as far as scratching her across the face when Adora suggested Catra, Adora, and Lonnie all be friends. Throwing her, jumping on her stomach with the intent of hurting her. Not to mention the manipulative nature of the love confession. And this is something I haven't seen people talk about, but... Adora does not and cannot make Catra feel safe and loved. And that, I believe, is one of the core problems of their relationship we see this, especially in the last season. No matter what Adora does or says, Catra simply does not believe her. I am sorry to cut this short here, with such a strong and in many ways controversial statement, but, as I said, always shoot me an ask for a more in-depth explanation!

The last portion I want to talk about is Double Trouble...and the fact that they're the only non-binary character within the show. I won't talk about their role in the story, an LGBTQ character can be evil or neutral, they don't always have to be good, as long as their villainous behavior is not a damaging stereotype for the community (such as a lesbian character praying on another woman) or their behavior isn't romanticized (ie. Catra). Double Trouble is I believe one of the more damaging representations of the show. They are a non-binary, shape-shifting lizard who imitates anyone they want to gain and manipulate and sees it as performance... Which is one of the MOST COMMON THINGS I've seen non-binary people being labelled as. As well as the only non-binary character within the show not being human, when most, if not all, other characters are human or human-adjacent. When I say Double Trouble is not only a bad but harmful representation of the non-binary community, I really mean it.

Thank you so much for the ask, I hope I was able to articulate my points well! And sorry for this post being incredibly long!

#robin reflects asks #robin reflects on shera #spop critical #spop criticism #anti catra #anti catradora #hordak #shadow weaver #doube trouble critical

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swearyshera · 1 year

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I want to say I really respect how you're handling Glimmer's arc, her interactions with Bow in particular. Them dealing with the emotional fallout of this in a harsh and awkward but earnest way is really gratifying. I feels like pulling teeth in the best way possible. Glimmer's arc still rings amazingly to me and somehow hasn't diminished since the apology bit.

Is it weird that I "respect" Glimmer's redemption more than Catra's? I guess I always thought Glimmer's heart was in the right place despite like... everything she had going on. I never once felt Glimmer couldn't be redeemed and frankly my opinion on if Catra really "deserved" redemption still flips every time I think about it. If i thought I had a way to annihilate the people who took my family away, I don't know if I'd hesitate to top-rope elbow drop the Big Red Button even as much as Glimmer did. I guess that was Catra's rationale too on a deeper level, but at least Glimmer wasn't fine with the world dying once confronted with that reality, as sad a step up as that is. I feel like the fact I don't feel much sorrier for Catra reflects very poorly on me.

The series had a bad habit of Catra's choices having their more catastrophic potential consequences avoided so her redemption could go down smoother, my most prominent example being the corrupt shera virus. I'd pay damn good money to see how the story could even begin to salvage Adora and Catra's relationship if Adora killed someone like Glimmer or Bow under the effects of that. (not to mention the portal only kills one, albeit very important, person, Adora just happening to survive falling a pit, the story conspicuously forgetting about Angella etc) This sort of thing makes me think the author is cheating or working backwards from the ending they already want. Other characters were involved in some of those choices but that only expands the problem imo.

Glimmer's doesn't kill the universe either, but there's still disastrous consequences for Etheria and people she cares about, pretty much all of s5, and her story is all about understanding what she brought on them, and becoming a more responsible person to her friends/people. I really liked that. The only person Catra is really held accountable to is Adora, and maybe Perfuma on Scorpia's behalf. There's Entrapta but I dont think she operates in terms of blame/forgiveness, at least in canon. I know she literally forgave Catra explicitly, I guess I'm too mean to believe people could let go of stuff that "easily' and write it off like it doesnt count.

I know Catra's arc wanted a more intimate scale and they didn't have time to litigate all this, but my deep gut reaction is "tough shit, you shouldn't have had Catra do all that if you weren't gonna make her face what she'd done", especially since Adora makes a point that Catra is afraid to face people she hurt, then Mermista, Micah and Scorpia are conveniently chipped until the last minutes of the damn show. HP really did Catra a solid there. Glimmer's arc felt more willing to make her culpable in dire shit and not pull punches about it, even less so here, so sincere gratitude from me there. Not that Adora and Catra weren't put through hell but their s5 relationship seems to happen in its own little bubble safe from outside responsibility apart from Adora's martyrdom pathology.

Anyway, very excited to see how the Catra reunion will be handled given everything so far, and for Glimmer and Bow stuff. You've never done wrong by us yet. Sorry for this fucking thesis. Please feel free to point all the ways I'm being a myopic dumbass.

I always see Catra and Glimmer as two sides of the same coin - the same person but treated very differently by those around them. Glimmer had love and forgiveness from the people she grew up with, particularly her mother, whereas Catra had none of that outside of Adora.

But I think the end of season 4, start of season 5, we see a little bit of a flipside of that, and that's what starts making both of them wiser, more mature, etc. Up until then, Glimmer had never really had to deal with consequences for her actions - her mother, outside of grounding her, didn't appear to really punish her when she did things wrong. Even Bow, at least until Fractures, felt he always had to support and agree with her (and his own arc played into that). But when Glimmer decided to plough ahead with her plan to activate the Heart and ignore her friends, she actually had serious consequences for once. She had to deal with losing friendships, attracting Prime. And that wasn't something she'd really had to deal with.

Catra, by contrast, always had negative consequences to even the slightest of actions. Usually by Shadow Weaver, and then by Hordak, she was punished for her mistakes. But in season 5, she gets shown kindness and forgiveness despite her actions, and it too, becomes a turning point for her.

I also don't really see the story as 'redemption'. It's not about Catra or Glimmer redeeming themselves, it's about accepting you've done wrong and making the choice to be better. Yes, they do have apologies to make, wrongs to right, and we don't see a lot of that in the show. But we don't need to. What we see is Glimmer becoming more levelheaded and choosing to use that in place of recklessness. We see Catra choosing to return to Adora in Heart not for herself, but for Etheria. Both these young women have done things that have had a huge negative impact on other people, but they both end up trying to do better, to be better.

Redemption is based on how other people treat you. This is a story about how you treat yourself. Both are important.

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samuel-vimes · 2 years

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I've seen a few people saying that Catra's happy ending was unearned, and that she didn't have enough of a redemption arc to make her relationship with Adora healthy, and I think I've finally put my finger on why I don't agree.

She didn't need a redemption arc to switch sides - she needed the one person in her life that she ever truly loved to show that their connection was still important and that Catra was worth saving.

Adora's defection from the Horde crushed Catra and severed the only true connection to another person she'd ever had. Catra struggled to make friends growing up due to the competitive and abusive environment of the Horde, so Adora was her only link to the part of herself that knew how to love. When Adora defected from the Horde for the sake of other people, Catra didn't understand how Adora could care enough about others to do that, since caring about anybody other than Adora (ex. Shadow Weaver) had only ever gotten her hurt. She'd learned to lock off her feelings to everyone else, so Adora's betrayal was incredibly impactful and destroyed what capacity to trust she had left.

We see how her attempts to build connections throughout the series leading up to the arrival of Horde Prime causes her strife over and over again. She tries to connect with Shadow Weaver, only to be manipulated and betrayed. She tries to connect with Hordak, only to find the relationship purely based on her usefulness instead of any real trust or affection. The two people who try to connect with her the most, Entrapta and Scorpia, are eventually driven away through the self-defense mechanisms Catra has developed over a lifetime of emotional abuse from Shadow Weaver. She becomes consumed with her goal of conquering Etheria for the Horde partly as a method of self-destruction - she is desperately, achingly lonely, and her pain turns into rage which she aims at everything around her because if there is nobody to reject her she cannot be hurt by rejection again.

In the end, what Catra needed to turn to the side of good was the acknowledgement from someone else that she has the capacity for good left in her, after everything. She gets that from Glimmer, who she chooses to save. I think that Glimmer's plea for Catra to do one good thing in her life began Catra's realisation that she even had the ability to choose good. Then, Adora risks everything for her - finally choosing Catra over anything else. Adora's choice to save Catra over everything wasn't something Catra manipulated her into doing, but it was the only thing that could have convinced Catra that she had any worth left - Adora chose her even after everything, because she recognised that Catra still had light in her and was still worth saving.

When Catra wakes to find Adora has rescued her, her worldview is turned upside down again, much like when Adora initially defected from the Horde. Adora's defection had her believing that she wasn't worth as much to Adora as the Rebellion Etherians that Adora had only met that day, and her whole life Adora had been the only person who made her feel like she was worth anything. Catra had an understanding of the Horde's cruel and evil nature that Adora lacked since she had more first hand experience of it than Adora did. Shadow Weaver was abusive to them both, but Catra very much bore the brunt of the physical abuse and more overt mental torture. Adora had managed to keep her innocence through their messed up childhood, allowing her to develop a moral compass. Catra's moral development was skewed incredibly by her upbringing, because in the Horde right and wrong didn't matter, only strength and loyalty to the cause. I believe Adora's choice to leave the Horde on moral grounds was the spark that led to Catra finally developing a sense of morality, something deeply terrifying to her. Adora's choices had finally forced Catra to consider right and wrong, and she knew where she fell but could see no path other than using strength to force her wrong choices to become the right ones in the eyes of the world - something she believed Horde victory would achieve.

When Adora chose to risk saving her despite it being the tactically poor choice, Catra was confronted with the realisation that despite it all, Adora still cared about her. She'd rebuilt the worldview that Adora shattered upon leaving the Horde around her own anger with herself and the world that formed her, resulting in a foundational belief in her unloveable nature and irredeemability. Adora choosing to care despite that broke surface of Catra's self hatred and allowed her to begin to heal. Bow, Glimmer and Entrapta's acceptance of her despite all the terrible things she had done reinforced the new message she was beginning to understand - it wasn't too late for her to make the right choices.

Catra needed to know that she could be loved and that the world wouldn't punish her for it before she could begin to heal, and healing was the only way for her to stop her self destructive cycle of pain and anger and loss.

If the show had continued past season 5, I think we would have seen Catra attempting to make amends, as we see the beginning of her doing so once she joins the Rebellion. However, I think that her acceptance into the Best Friend Squad and the love she gets to share with Adora coming at the beginning of her turn to good is a fundamental part of what makes her so striking as a character - here is someone who has done unspeakable things being given love and forgiveness so easily because that's what she needed. You can have those things too, if you need them.

TL;DR: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a show about hope, and that hope is granted to EVERYONE. You don't have to be redeemed to have hope. It's not too late for anybody, despite what they've done, because hope isn't something that's earned - it's there, and it's found through love for others, and everyone gets it unconditionally.

#you ever write a fucking essay at 2am for no reason #catra #adora #catradora #spop #she ra #she ra and the princesses of power

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spopsalt · 4 months

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Hunter (TOH) - Good redemption arc, deserved redemption arc. He had trauma and was not like Catra.

Zuko (ATLA) - Good redemption arc, earned redemption arc. He also had trauma and was not like Catra.

Belos (TOH) - Well deserved ass beating, stomped to death. He was a horrible person. Like Catra.

Catra - Undeserved, unearned forgiveness. Gets to live in peace and take credit for saving Etheria despite the harm she caused to many innocent lives and being the one who put Etheria in so much fucking danger because her selfish, narcissistic ass decided to pull a lever to what? "Prove a point?" Be so fucking for real.

People love to throw the trauma reasoning around all they want to excuse horrible actions, so I guess that'd give me the right to drop a nuke with no repercussion what-so-ever if "trauma" is the case for people acting horrible. People need to be so fucking for real and touch grass.

Thanks for the ask anon! You are exactly right! I've said it once, and I'll say it again, trauma is not an excuse to be a horrible person, Catra attempted to destroy the world and everyone just brushes it off. Hunter had a short redemption arc than Catra and it was done so much better. You can have a good redemption arc, but the villian being redeemed has to work for it. Hunter worked for it, he protected Gus, disobeyed Belos, protected Luz, protected the emarald entrails and showed moments of kindness during his redemption and Catra she...uh....saved Glimmer, and...she's sorry? Let's forgive her! What a cute kitty cat! They both have trauma, but one of these things are not like the other.

#anti spop #spop discourse #spop criticism #anti catra #spop salt #spop crit #spop critical

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babyspacebatclone · 6 months

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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….)

😈

#my writing #fan theory #crack fic turned fanon #tw suicide mention #tw suicide ideation #characters involved are spoilers #hordak #the second one you have to read to find out #😈#fan fic #outline

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