Ok so this is me sorta headcanoning, so take this with a grain of salt, but one of the reasons why the infantilization of Rogue always bothers me is because I always felt like her powers were a metaphor for disability/chronic illness and fandom police act already like disabled women aren't capable of being in their own villain romances, example being Entrapdak antis denying Entrapta her own agency in her romance with Hordak in the She-Ra reboot.

Oh! But you make a really good point! It’s one of those subtle perspectives that can be dangerous just because of how easy they are to integrate into someone's view of the world. I'm not as vocal online as I used to be. I feel like there are people out there far better equipped to talk about it than I, while I grow old and cranky. But, you brought up a really important aspect that kinda sent me into a 'hold my beer' moment so apologies for the long answer! To start with, I wouldn’t call this a headcanon, not at all, clearly not in the context of X-men, and Rogue in particular. It’s a very apt analogy. The reason why these characters become relevant to us is because we recognize something from our personal journey in them, and the comparison you made for Rogue is a very strong one. Her inability to touch can absolutely be read as a disability! In so many of her stories/arcs it is often portrayed as a struggle, as an obstacle to a ‘normal life’. Her difficulties with gaining control over her powers and dealing with other personalities that are trying to take over her mind can also be a strong metaphor for mental health struggles/disorders. Rogue is a fantastic hero in that regard and seeing her be her own person, learning how to work and be proud of what she can do, can feel like a personal victory for so many people. It’s why it’s important to see her happy, to see her winning her battles and use who she is and what she can do in a positive and impactful way. There are many reasons why fans end up taking away her agency or attributing her choices to a different (often male) character. And, to be fair, a couple of comic-book writers have done this exact thing to her, so I can see where this skewed perspective might be coming from. Within fandom this happens mostly because it serves to support their arguments for whatever thing they prefer or project onto the character. If they don’t like a certain narrative or can’t accept that it might’ve be written for someone else, they have this to fall back on and point to. Or, sadly, one of the simplest reasons for doing this is the age-old turning their ship preferences into ‘I’m right, you are wrong’ arguments. But these things can hide some internalized misconceptions. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the reboot of She-Ra (shame on me) so I don’t have the full picture for the take on Entrapta, but now I have one more reason to invest some time in it. In this situation with Rogue, I believe that what you mentioned applies very well. The argument that I’ve seen going around a lot is that Rogue was manipulated/swayed by being presented with the opportunity to ‘be normal’. Because she wanted to be able to touch and as a result she was taken advantage of because of her ‘disability’. Which is entirely false. In no version of the relationship between Rogue and Magneto in the comics, and not even in the reinvented take in the animation, has he ever abused that. Her attraction to him has always, always, come first, and the ability to touch, second. He was never the first one to act upon it. Even in the animation, every shot in the flashback was carefully considered to portray that - she is shown as the initiator every time (my favourite scene is when she’s trying her very best to pose in a suggestive way and he just paints her as he sees her, lively and sincere). But some fans don’t want to see that. They don’t want to acknowledge the authenticity of her decisions because it doesn’t serve the narrative they want of her/for her.

I read your message and it hit like a hammer how much deeper this problem can actually go, because it’s masked by those surface-level justifications. Removing agency and responsibility from someone just because they operate differently than one’s expectations is damaging in and of itself, and within a fandom it perpetuates an idea that can stifle people’s perspective and critical thinking. (This whole topic actually reminded me of Madison Tevlin's “Assume that I can” commercial. I think it's relevant to the conversation) Thanks a lot for sharing this!!! We need to talk more about these things and if I misspoke on something or missed something important would love to hear it. 💜

Bouncing off the Nimona stuff, I’d love to hear your take on disability in FMA

I think FMA is a story about recovery, first and foremost. Not just from injuries but from other traumatic events too. It’s loaded with characters who are disabled and scarred and mentally ill in a way that most other stories just aren’t.

And these characters recover in different ways too! And to different degrees! And even when someone magically regains a limb or their entire body or whatever, that’s not the end of their recovery.

Ed’s automail prosthetics are also really well written I think. His regular ones are heavy as shit (possibly even stunting his growth) and he needs to work out so that he’s strong enough to use them and account for that extra weight while he does. He needs to get new ones in a different material when he goes somewhere cold so he doesn’t get frostbite. He has to maintain them or they break. They’re expensive, prohibitively so if he didn’t have military money and a bestie whos probably giving him a discount. And at several points when they’re getting repaired we see him using prosthetics that someone might use in real life!

(The manga also includes him having phantom pains from his lost limbs.)

That’s just the main character, and already we can see how Arakawa has researched how this sort of thing works and how it impacts Ed’s life (both the advantages he gets and the inconveniences he has to keep in mind).

And Ed’s far from the only character. Al’s lost his entire body. He lacks so much of his physical sensation. I’m not really qualified to speak on that (it’s rather the opposite of my problem) but I do think it’s presented in a really sensitive and poignant way. Izumi lost several organs and is chronically ill (and I think she has chronic pain specifically? It’s been a bit since I’ve done FMA things lol) and she gets physically blowback when she overworks herself. Hawkeye has scars covering her back and is (as I recall) the superior officer that Ed and Al respect and look up to the most.

Even Scar, who initially seems to be a shoe-in for all the negative tropes that bug me so much, is written sensitively and sympathetically! Honestly once we get the backstory on Ishval I’d say he’s one of the most unconditionally heroic characters in the whole story.

(Also Ling definitely has completely fucked blood sugar levels and he’s pretty cool I think. I’m not really qualified to speak on the whole GreedLing situation though you’d have to ask someone else about that.)

A lot of the characters are also majorly traumatized. Most of the military characters Ed interacts with are reckoning with the horrible things they did during the Ishvalan extermination, for example, and the narrative is sensitive to their pain even as it calls out their mistakes. The librarian (I forgot her name because again I haven’t fulled my metal alchemists in a while) reads as autistic to me and she’s absolutely crucial in salvaging the ruined library.

I haven’t seen Nimona yet, so I can’t really talk about Ballister to compare him to any of that. I might come back to this post later if I do wind up watching it. My best point of reference for Stevenson’s writing of disabilities otherwise is SPOP, but I don’t really want to directly compare anything in SPOP to FMA, either, because… there really isn’t any way to compare them? I can and have talked about this at length in the past (that video predates Stevenson making his name/gender properly known but he had discussed a bit of his feelings on the subject so it mentions his old name and uses neutral pronouns) but it feels more than a little unfair to talk about in this post just because of how much the two stories are in different ballparks wrt their disabled characters. But to make a long story short, SPOP’s protagonists aren’t physically scarred or disabled, even when it would make sense for them to be (Hordak and Spinnerella do both have physical disabilities, just ones that are never shown or mentioned when they’re not opponents, which is… eugh) and the narrative treatment of Entrapta and Scorpia is genuinely insulting to me personally.

In the end I guess it just boils down to… FMA was written by someone who expected disabled people to be part of her audience, and who researched and wrote accordingly. Nimona, despite my interest in it, was helmed by someone who previously has not seemed to have that same expectation for his works.

As a short woman, I usually hate the "Tall Man, Tiny Woman" pairings only because they're so heteronormative and stereotypical but not Entrapdak. Entrapta's comfortable enough around him to show anger but isn't an "angry smol" stereotype around him whereas Hordak is the one who is more impatient and easily angered (but for understandable reasons). Not saying short heights and tempers can't mix, but it's kinda annoying when fandom hyperfocuses on short character anger versus that of taller characters, even those taller characters who are actually angrier than the fandom's fanon angry smol character(s). I also like that Hordak doesn't disrespect Entrapta by calling her gross shit like "baby" or "little goddess" or sling her over his shoulder like a lot of stereotypical tall men characters do to their love interests. In fact, both can be strong because of cybernetics and magic hair but also be vulnerable like Entrapta struggling to fit in and be genuinely accepted by others due to her autism and Hordak living with his own physical disability/chronic illness which a lot of people of various ages and genders can relate to.

Fanfic requests OPEN for SPOP

I am currently taking fanfic requests for the Netflix show "She Ra and the Princesses of Power" (not the 80's show)

I will write : - Hurt/comfort - Fluff - AUs - Canon divergence - Songfics - Sickfics - Any other trope (so long as it follows my rules) - Any headcanon (so long as it follows my rules) - Whatever ship you want (so long as it follows my rules)

I won’t write : - Smut or fetish fics - Pedophilia/incest (including adopted family, and including step-siblings)/beastiality ships (or anything like that) - OCs - Crossovers (including with the 80s show, He-Man, etc.) - Y/N - Explicit depictions of self-harm or suicide - Drowning (personal trigger of mine) - Werewolf AUs (werewolves are also a trigger of mine, although if your request is compelling enough, I might endure)

Other things to note : - I do not guarantee I will write every request I get. Sometimes requests will just not click with me, and sometimes I don’t feel qualified to fulfill it. I will try to write as many as I can, though - You can also submit any requests to this prompt meme on AO3 if that’s more your style : https://archiveofourown.org/collections/newwwwusernamerequests or to this Google form : https://forms.gle/3K7STap3v715Hidu5

The following is a list of ships and headcanons I particularly like. I’ll write anything, but I’m much more likely to write it if it has one or more of the following

Pairings (/ for romantic, & for platonic) : Catra/Adora, Hordak/Entrapta, Double Trouble/Sea Hawk, Sea Hawk/Mermista, Bow/Glimmer, Perfuma/Huntara, Glimmer/Catra, Kyle/Rogelio, Double Trouble/Peekablue, Catra & pretty much anyone, Double Trouble & Finn, Adora & Glimmer, Adora & Bow, Entrapta & Scorpia, Hordak & Adora, Hordak & Wrong Hordak, most gen pairings honestly, Jewelstar & Tallstar & Starla

Headcanons : Autistic!Catra, Sea Hawk has ADHD, Autistic!Hordak, Autistic!Wrong Hordak, Chronically Ill!Hordak (is that even a headcanon or is it just canon? either way, I like to write about it), everyone who was in the war got PTSD from it, Chronically Ill!Catra, FTM!Peekablue, Therapy Animal!Melog

Entrapdak Positivity Month Day 5: Disability

I just love these two — and regardless of them being antagonists for much of the show, they’re important to me as representation.

From the beginning, Entrapta is the only person not intimidated by Hordak. He’s caught off guard by her lack of fear, and struggles to maintain control of the situation, but Entrapta isn’t easily controllable. She doesn’t react like most of the Etherians Hordak has encountered, so she’s unpredictable for him in a way he clearly isn’t used to.

Unlike in her relationships with other characters, here Entrapta’s autism isn’t something she has to “overcome.” It’s just part of her, and in fact, it actually drives the formation of their relationship. She’s able to break down the walls Hordak’s put up just by being herself.

And Hordak definitely has a lot of defenses that he never expected anyone to try breaking through, let alone succeed. He’s used to pushing everyone away by maintaining the image of someone frightening and powerful. Presumably, this is partly fear of appearing weak which is pretty justified considering how Catra takes advantage of it as soon as she finds out, and partly the shame Prime taught him to feel about his disability.

Fortunately for them both, it doesn’t work on Entrapta. Hordak doesn’t scare her, he fascinates her — and she wants to help him.

And she tells him things he really needs to hear as someone dealing with a ton of internalized ableism from abuse, and even builds him an assistive device as soon as she finds out about his chronic illness.

(god i just. love this scene)

Although Entrapta is a lot more self-assured than Hordak is, she has some significant insecurities too — and it’s not hard to see why, when pretty much everyone treats her like this:

would be cooler if the show portrayed this as a bad thing but at least it’s realistic lol

I think a lot of autistic people, myself included, know the feeling of being grudgingly kept around just because you’re useful in some way, but not really understood or liked. With the princesses, Entrapta has to accept this as the closest she can get to friendship — and she tries to.

At first, she may seem unbothered by it, but she’s all too aware that she doesn’t fit in with most people. That’s what makes it so easy for Catra to convince her that the other princesses left her behind. They might think she's unable to notice the way they act toward her, but she does notice, and it hurts.

That’s part of what makes her relationship with Hordak so important. Yes, she helps him a lot, but it’s not one-sided either. He’s the one person who consistently listens to her and respects her, even before they become close.

They both introduce each other to a kind of respect (and love) they aren’t used to receiving, and may not feel worthy of at first, due to ableism and abuse. They understand each other, they help each other, and their relationship is mutually beneficial.

-

bonus Relatable Neurodivergent Moods with Entrapta:

the “no no I swear I’m listening even though I look like I’m not” lol

and the “wait shit you’re mad?? what did I do? why didn’t you just tell me?”

Also, this scene with Hordak is so relatable for chronic illness/pain:

It’s exhausting trying to keep going when your body is falling apart and seems to be working against you at every turn, especially when you have to hide that you’re struggling and hold yourself to the same standards as a healthy person.

-

anyway, in conclusion: Entrapdak are good rep and I love them. thank u for coming to my ted talk.

two nerds, chillin’ in the fright zone, no feet apart cus they’re doing science

Human!Hordak! 💜❤️

she-ra is so important to me... i’ve never seen an intra-abled relationship in children’s media! being chronically ill and being autistic are two different disabilities that come with their own struggles and wonders, it’s so wonderful to have a space to explore that!

i’d like to think hordak’s armor in a human!au would be orthotic devices for his disability! 

Intimacy Log, Ch.22

Here’s the link.

Chapter Summary: A promising start to the day.

CW: Chronic pain, chronic illness, frustration with chronic pain, internalized ableism (lighter this chapter, but there are elements of it here), kissing, passionate kissing, discussion of plans for their next intimacy log.

A/N: I do not have any chronic pain—the worst I’ve got is an iffy knee that I occasionally have to baby so it doesn’t get any worse—and I’m mostly relying on the canon and certain family members’ experiences for inspiration here. Please, if there’s something in this chapter that you believe to be offensive or ableist or otherwise unpalatable, let me know and I will change it, though I might ask for help.

To the anonymous person who called me an ableist c**t for having Catra as my favorite character/blogging about her, I kindly invite you to take a walk around your neighborhood and count the curb cuts and write to your local rep about accessibility or do something actually productive for the disability community.

Take your hate towards Catra fans (whom you actually know nothing about IRL, for all you know I could also be chronically ill or have a partner who is) and use it to actually be productive and advocate. It’s much easier to do the former than the latter. Why don’t you do the actual hard work of fighting for diability rights.

I can have opinions about the fandom, (my opinions are that I am indifferent to Hordak. I don’t care about or hate him), without being personally attacked. A person’s fandom preferences are small potatoes compared to who they really are as a person.

It would be different of course if I was openly spreading hate towards Hordak on account of his disability or Entrapta because of her being nuro-divergent but I do not. I never have. I never will. I like Entrapta and while I don’t personally ship it, I’m glad people have Entrapdak in their lives to ship. I’ve written a lot Hordak too, I’ve written about him sympathetically. I am fascinated by his and Catra’s relationship especially post-cannon. I find it intriguing to explore. Just because I don’t blog about him (this blog is literally called Catra Corner,”) doesn’t mean I am ableist. At all.

Take that time and energy that you spent insulting me and donate to an organization run by and for disabled people. PayPal takes five seconds to donate, probably less time to contribute $5 then it does to find my blog and DM me send me that message. I could go on but I’ll stop before I get too angry. Turning anonymous comments off now.

so idk if this is like, a dumb question and at this point i’m almost too afraid to ask but... is hordak physically healed? like, he showed no symptoms of his illness, and the back of his neck didn’t show any blue veins, it actually looked like his markings were streamlined when you see it. plus, he looked no different from his kin in the same clothing, i doubt he’s wearing armor underneath. idk, it wouldn’t shock me if prime had the means to heal hordak and the real defect was his free will permanently “corrupting” his mind, and hordak thinking his defect was the physical aspect.

I’ve often thought about the similarities between Hordak and Catra in terms of “living a shit life to gain the esteem of some asshole.” It’s a commonly discussed thing, since season three gave us actual Hordak backstory and motivations. Recently, though, as I rewatch bits and pieces to prep for season four, I’ve been mulling over a specific difference I find interesting, particularly in terms of how it might explain why some people, myself included, have become frustrated with our feline daughter while suddenly having sympathy for the trash-bat man.

Namely, the difference is in fault. And in blame.

One of the most frustrating things about Catra by the end of season three is that she continuously assigns blame for everything shit that’s happened to her to everyone but herself. Obviously, this isn’t always wrong: the overwhelming majority of her pathology can be attributed to Shadow Weaver’s abysmal care and abusive techniques, alongside some bits and pieces sadly attributed to Adora (though this is hardly Adora’s fault). She’s right in that her trauma isn’t her fault... but by the time of season three, she’s had enough empowerment and personal autonomy to have taken an appreciable amount of control of her situation. She’s had stable, loving support in the form of Scorpia (bless her arachnid heart). She’s had the choice to remain in the Crimson Wastes, not by herself, but with a loyal companion and impressed subordinates. 

At some point in season three, she crosses that finest of lines and makes more and more poor choices under her own power. She rejects innocent, loyal friendship. And she continues to blame all of this on Adora. It becomes frustrating and discouraging to watch her continued spiral, especially when she tries to pin her attempt to destroy the entire world on Adora, as if such a thing could possibly be Adora’s fault in any way. It seems that no matter what happens, Catra refuses to take any responsibility.

Compare this to Hordak, particularly in the scene in which he shows his vulnerability to Entrapta. All of his disappointment and anger and disgust at failure is, in the end, aimed at himself. He punishes his subordinates for their own mistakes, yes, but he never blames them for the overall lack of progress on the portal, or on a new body, or on the conquering of Etheria. He blames himself, and only himself. 

He never actually blames Horde Prime for rejecting him even though, to anyone with a smidgen of soul, it is a clear dick move. He never suggests that his hardships can be blamed on Prime’s unfair, cruel treatment. Instead, he internalizes everything and directs the blame at himself. He suggests that perhaps he really is just... worthless and deserving of abandonment and death. Which is just particularly awful to watch, because blaming oneself for illness and disability is just.. it’s just a terribly sad, dark thing. A dismal emotional space to be in. 

And so, while Catra fails to take any responsibility, Hordak takes too much.

Add to that his positive reaction to an offer of friendship from Entrapta, and the bit of fandom shift we’ve seen makes more sense. While Catra callously uses Scorpia without really returning her affection, Hordak is respectful of Entrapta, actually seems to enjoy being around her, and overall just better accepts an honest, positive relationship.

no really the entrapdak is just cute and i’m still shocked by how cute it is three months later i’m still unprepared for it every time i see it it continues to be a weird twist

Mind you, I don’t know that this’ll change anything in the end. I still expect Catra to be redeemed and Hordak to either be imprisoned or die or whatever. None of this means that Catra is a lost cause, or that Hordak will magically join the Alliance, but it does make it a touch easier to see why so many Hordak stans have cropped up since season three, while Catra is currently making people cringe and sigh and facedesk fandom-wide. At least, it explains my changing reactions to these two characters.

Kur twins' outfit designs

Sooo I finally sat down and decided on final designs for Anillis (young Prime) and his brother Hec-Tor!

These are their regular day-to-day looks (how they'll appear in my Horde Prime's origin story, or Kur twins au, how I'm going to call it from now on)

Despite very lazy simple rendering ( i wanted to focus on it more at first, but then the file crushed a few times so i gave up lol) I still can say these drawings are quite detailed, so tap/click to stare at them in higher quality c:

I also added close-ups of their faces, because I WANT you to look at Prime's fake ass smile in 4k

It was super fun working on their outfits and I have A LOT to say about them. These quick notes I left are just the tip of the iceberg lol

Under the cut I fully discuss every aspect of their designs, meaning and symbolism behind them and what they can tell about Kur brothers: their personalities, their upbringing, family dynamic, their social status, hidden insecurities and so on!

Treat this post more like a part 1 of their introduction. The 2nd part will be all about their lives before the events of the main story (their childhood and adolescence). In other words: today I'm discussing the covers, next time - the books themselves :)

I hope you'll find my commentary entertaining!

First things first, I want to clear one thing out: Anillis and Hec-Tor here are young adults, somewhere in their early 20s (in human terms!). Their exact age however is not the most important number in the story and is in fact still unknown even to me, so here’s that :p

Okay, now I can start!

Face, body and and all that stuff:

- If you take away the heels, the boys are as tall as a regular horde clone. An average height for male spacebats their age, still not perfect height for Anillis :/

- Fun fact: spacebat society had their own beauty standards, and when it came to facial markings, there were two extremes of what was considered ideal: lines that covered more than just you face (forhead, back/top of the head, ears and neck) and formed fancy elegant patterns OR very minimalistic neat symmetrical lines. Anillis and Hec-Tor had the latter and for that were considered very pretty

Another fun fact: spacebats who had such perfect features were lovingly called 'angels' or 'dolls', and the boys were called that A LOT throughout their lives

- They have the same diamond thingy on their torso as Prime has - since I headcanon it to be his birthmark, not part of the outfit. Just because it’s cute uwu

- The twins are nowhere near as buff/muscular and strong as clones, and for obvious reason: they were never trained/programmed/made for war or hard labor. They never had any interest in fighting/combat training or sports (they do enjoy gymnastics tho, ESPECIALLY mental gymnastics, it’s their favorite)

And they, unlike Prime, had no need or desire to look Big and Powerful and Intimidating. All Anillis and Hec-Tor wanted is for people to always enjoy their company and treat them as if they're the most important people in the room, but that's all c:

NOW let's talk about the elephant in the room: Anillis’ skin discoloration. Yes, in this au Horde Prime used to have the same chronic condition (or “defect”) as Hordak. Can’t tell much about it yet because huge spoilers, but there’s two interesting non spoiler-y things you can notice right away:

1) Anillis' arms are not all skin and bone and the skin itself is still more blue than white. It indicates that his illness didn’t take a toll on him until recently

2) Despite them being identical twins, Hec-Tor doesn’t seem to be affected by the "defect" at all

Hair:

Their hair means a lot to the boys. And it something Anillis is very protective of (he has his reasons). They'll never trust their hair to any stylist, and don't really need one, since the twins are each other's stylists! Besides, brushing, braiding, taking care of and playing with each other’s hair have been their favorite bonding activity since childhood :3

Now to their individual hairstyles

Hec-Tor - This is NOT how it naturally looks like. Both his and Anillis' hair is naturally more poofy and wavey

Straightening his hair and gelling it back has become a part of Hec-Tor's rutine. He finds the process tedious and time consuming, but he still does it mostly every day. Only because that one time Anillis peer pressured him said he looks better like this

Anillis - as he got older he wanted to look as different from his brother as possible, so he could finally be seen and treated as an individual and not just a part of the duo, but he hated the idea of dyeing or cutting his hair short, so he came up with an alternative

Not only is this hairstyle practical and pretty, he likes how his countless accessories sound - it’s fun and calming. Plus it makes totally-not-a-pick-me Anillis even more noticeable and recognizable: people hear familiar clinking in the distance and immediately go “Hey, it’s Anillis :)” or “Oh NO, it’s Anillis”

Use of color:

The boys share mostly the same color pallet and here’s 3 reasons for this:

1) reference to Prime and clone’s canon designs

2) despite all their effort to look different the twins still have similar preferences in fashion and are used to wear clothes from same collections

3) color white and silver jewelry is kinda a religious thing in their society? Of course, everybody can wear those without giving it much thought, but at the same time white garments and silver are important attributes worn by local believers and ecclesiastics. So, are Kur brothers religious? No, but they still are in the eyes of the religious community they were raised in. So the boys keep wearing said attributes so as not to raise questions no matter where and with whom they're seen and no matter what they do. If anyone realizes that famous Kur twins not only left their temple, but also lost their faith it can result in a MAJOR scandal. Why? Well, because spoilers c:

Thus when Anillis began to wear more black it almost felt as if he was now trying to distant himself from his old community even further

Clothes:

[an old doodle from last year]

Kur twins are not royalty and can't really call themselves nobles either. They were born into a family of little-known scientists and, having grown up, followed in their parents' footsteps: with one of them becoming an expert in robotics and the other choosing to study bioengineering (i swear it is going somewhere)

However, due to certain circumstances, the boys were actually 'raised by the community', meant they literally had to live in a temple with other kids and attend local analogue of catholic school. It also meant that the twins spent most of their childhood and teenage years wearing compulsory uniforms. Only when they reached the age of majority they were finally free to wear whatever they wanted and try to find their own unique style

After years of being forced to wear the same boring uniforms the boys really enjoyed to dress in something that'd attract the most attention: be it loud shining jewerly, high heels and platforms or revealing clothes

(still had to wear at least one white item of clothing and at least one silver accessory)

Since, again, they're no royalty, their everyday outfits are pretty simplistic and casual, though still fashionable and very impractical. However, both Anillis and Hec-Tor have a special love for fancy gowns, but those are for big occasions only (but good for them! they will eventually have to show up at the big event and wear pretty dresses! hooray!)

Hec-Tor's outfit:

- "Bat wings" cape is a traditional outerwear that used to be only handmade and passed down from parent (or any close relative) to child, but after the war* a huge cultural shift happened which has also affected the fashion. That's when "modernized" version of the cape was made. The shape has changed, no longer resembling bat wings, as well as changed the fabric. Elderly bats didn't like that at all, but at least the tradition wasn't dead. Hec-Tor likes his cape, but whenever he has to visit his old teachers he takes it off, just so a short visit wouldn't turn into 2 hour lecture about his appearance

*yup there was a war, nope i won't elaborate >:}

- If you've ever worn skin tight mini skirts/dresses you can as well say that it is nearly impossible to walk in them without readjusting them every two minutes. And yet somehow it's no trouble for Hec-Tor. He was definitely a male model in his past life😌or he's just a hoe

- There're some very tiny and beraly noticable red accents in Hec-Tor's design. You can actually find color red if you zoom in enough! Did I do it to hint on a subtle parallel between Hec-Tor and another well known character? 👀 I dunno

- I was joking when I said Hec-Tor "started the trend" on huge boob windows, but he surely did it before Prime! Horde Prime already took everything from his brother, but to copy the boob window... this was officially the worst thing he could ever do to Hec-Tor :p

But in all seriousness, I wanted Hec-Tor's outfit to resemble Prime’s future look and clones’ uniform at the same time. (Prime - upper half of the attire and that talon/ring thing on his hand, clones - cape and to some extent - hair). To Anillis Hec-Tor was his equal. To Prime Hec-Tor was... well

Anillis' outfit:

- You can see that his two looks represent Anillis before and after he found out about his illness

1) The first one is made from lighter fabrics and is more open, transparent, mostly prefectly matching Hec-Tor's

Anillis is still wearing his white outfit tho, but only at home, where no one but Hec-Tor can see him. At home he's comfortable enough to show his skin. At home color white is just a pretty color

2) The other is more closed, warmer but darker, contrasting Hec-Tor. Now he and Hec-Tor don't look like a pair of dolls from one set and there's hope that they won't be mistaken for one another anymore

He wears the second one for the main reason to hide his discolorated skin. But also, after his illness finally took at toll on him he was done trying to pretend like he's still a good faithful boy, he was just too tired at this point. So, he didn't just stopped wearing white. To make his point clear to his old community, he changed it to black - Despite me mostly sticking to canon color pallete, greenish accents in his design are not bright neon/citrin green, but softer mint geen (or turquoise?). I didn't know why i wanted to use this shade, maybe just because it looks better on black. But now I think I can see symbolism in Prime going from soft and more "friendly" color to bright and more "agressive"

- I remember someone pointed out that screens in Prime's throne room look a lot like peacock's tail. I thought it's a really cool detail and wanted to do something similar with Anillis' design. I decided to add long trains of fabric, but make them look more like a closed tail, since at this point in timeline Anillis/Prime has yet to 'spread his feathers' ...in every sense :p

[ This may be a meme, but the beef between Anillis and peafowl is in fact real X) ]

Hordak is anorexic

I have a theory about why Hordak appears so baby faced in S5 and why his face is so drawn in his other seasons (Off-model-dak excluded)

Initially, I had dismissed this due to the fact that the series has a terrible record with his model, especially in the first season but come season 2, he becomes more and more accurate to his character sheet.

The animators just needed more practice with him it seems. The more he appears in scenes, the more he looks like himself.

Regardless of the tiny inconsistencies with his model sometimes, there is one thing that remains consistent. His gaunt appearance

Compare S5 Hordak to previous seasons Hordak.

(I chose a screencap where he has his default resting bitch face, can’t keep them heretical expression off your face can you Hordak?)

Ok. So a point could be made that the first picture is post reconditioning. One could say that Prime had “fixed” him. But that wouldn’t explain the last one.

This is a picture of him, as seen by Adora almost two decades ago. He looks fresh-faced and round cheeked, as we like to call it “baby faced”.

This was probably quite soon* after he was teleported by probably Light Hopel on the planet.

*a few years at most if you want the chronology to make any sort of sense since Scorpia was an infant when Hordak arrived and she was in her early twenties in season 1.

The way he appears in season 1 is after twenty years of suffering from his illness and probably self-neglect.

Little brothers are not given the skills to survive on their own. Prime never intended them to have those. They are supposed to die away from His Light.

To us, it’s easy to understand what hunger is and when to satisfy it. How much we should eat to sate ourselves. How much a human should sleep every day. We know these things, even if we don’t often do them. We’ve been taught these skills while growing up. Horde Prime's clones - have not.

There is a degree of instinct involved however, a lot of people have managed to forgo them in special situations…say… Sokushinbutsu (link). Monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive.

Religious beliefs would be motivation enough to forgo the natural instinct to sustain oneself.

This checks out for the clones since Hordak and his brothers have been taught that:

Food is a privilege that only Prime was allowed to partake in. The clones subsisted on amniotic fluid. (another way in which Horde Prime infantilized them to facilitate control over them.)

The amniotic fluid reserves on the ship with which Hordak crashed on the planet post teleportation had to run out at some point which left Hordak with quite the dilemma...

Does he respect his faith and accept death through starvation confirming his worthlessness by not returning to Prime’s side or ...

Does he commit sin and consume food other than what he is allowed through doctrine? (nothing, he's not allowed to eat anything, everything is forbidden. duh!)

Both choices are heretical but only one presents him with even the slightest chance of being accepted into the flock again and so, he chose the latter.

But eating to him must have felt sinful and as such, he probably only did it as a last resort, to keep staving off death and no more.

The result of chronic inanition is chronic starvation, cachexia the signs and symptoms of which include:

loss of body weight (more than 5%)

muscle atrophy

faintness

dizziness

blood pressure drop

slowing heart rate

hypotension

weakness

abdominal pain

organ failure

heart attacks

depression

hippocratic facies - (sunken eyes and temples, resorbiton of the Bichat bulla aka, the cheek fat, pinched nose, and tense hard skin)…

Hippocratic facies in a human:

Emaciation as seen on Hordak:

Severe muscle atrohpy, preeminent bones through skin that is dry and adhesive to the subiacent tissues. (dehydration?)

His eyes appear “enlarged” or sunken due to the loss of periorbital fat. His face has all of the are extra creases too in the first 2 seasons, creases that appear because the skin is dry and dehydrated and so it folds on itself.

The face is noticeably thinner. When a human loses too much weight, the fat of the cheek is resorbed giving the face a skull like appearance. It is visible on Hordak as well. His cheek is very sharp and concave, skull like.

The animators actually took the time to portray him as severely underweight and kept that consistent.

The reason all of this is relevant you ask? Because there is a pattern to be observed.

Whilst he is severely underweight in s1 and s2 even most of s3, he starts gaining weight in s 4. (his condition also gets better – as written in the essay that analyzed the progression of his skin discoloration).

While still thin, he seems to have improved after Entrapta provided him with care and the new armor.

Here is him, s4:

The change is consistent. The eyes seem proportionately smaller, less sunken in the eyesocket.

He continues to improve (physically at least) after he is reunited with his kind and thus receives the same rations his kindred do, so much so that he is almost indistinguishable from his brothers. (if not for his inability to control his face)

The picture speaks for itself:

This really makes me worry about him (and all of his kind) post canon. All of Prime’s clones will have this issue after Prime’s demise.

Food intake is not only sinful (as stated by conditioning) but adapting to a diverse diet will be tremendously difficult.

The clones have subsisted on a sterile nutrition and were not born naturally. As such, they lack the intestinal flora required to facilitate digestion. In essence, they have to diversify their food intake the way a baby that is being weaned off milk would. Issues would arise even without their oppressively conditioning.

To make matters worse, the discomfort that comes with this process will probably validate the religious notion that food is sin since the intake of it is punishing and painful. (at least in the beginning).

He and all of his kind will require a lot of therapy and education in order to adapt to a life of freedom from Prime and the process will probably be tenuous for both the clones and their caretakers.

If Only

---

As his eyes opened, he began to gain consciousness, and that all too familiar view of the ceiling seeped in. As on most days Hordak’s first word of the day a grunt of irritation. He was immediately exhausted, just from the weight of existing in the present. His ever-present chronic pains gnawed at his body, like sharp needles slicing through nerves. Thanks to the armour built by his beloved Entrapta the pain wasn’t overwhelming. It was manageable, but it was always there.

  His blood red and toxic waste green eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room. The curtains were swung open, letting the light of the morning enter. He turned his head over to the right, just as he suspected, no one in bed. His loving partner was already up and buzzing around. Per usual. She always had so much energy; it was so exhausting. He knew it was time to rise and shine, he could never go back to sleep after waking up. He took a deep breath, long groan, and he pushed himself up. The ill clone sniffed and snuggled with the blanket one last time.

  He whipped the blanket off himself aggressively, he dragged his lazy legs over the edge of the bed, they were naked, unarmoured. His armoured boots waited by the side of the bed. He dangled his feet over the armoured boots, it took a second for them to respond, but the boots automatically opened like a flower, revealing a soft comfy inside combined with mechanic technologies to help the armour respond to his nerve impulses. The armour was an extension of his body, a second skin.

  He slipped his feet into the boots, and they enclosed around them up to his knees. Then he stood up, he achieved balance a few seconds later. He couldn’t walk without them. He couldn’t support his own weight; his shins would have snapped in half if not for their help.

  He was still a little groggy, but he got up on his own two feet and wobbled his way out of the bedroom. He, of course, forgot his lenses. He forgot things often. The clone mind was a complex, complicated, and troubled entity. Some days his memory was worse. Some days it was better. Today it was worse.

  Hordak had briefly checked the rafters and vents as those were Imp’s favourite napping spots. They weren’t in bed with him, which was strange since Imp was not at all an early bird. He found no trace of the little baby bat. So, he chose to move on to look for his beloved, who often occupied similar spaces. He found her once again tinkering with the communication array. The floor panelling was scattered around among a dangerous number of wires and cables. Her prehensile hair dancing around, from tool to tool. She made it look so easy, like it was second nature to her, like all machinery was an extension of her. Her gloved hands, and purple hair tendrils assembled and disassembled complex machinery in seconds. It was astounding, Hordak was mesmerised by her talents, every time, forever and always.

  He spotted Imp cuddling in Entrapta’s hair, wrapped it around himself, their little wings and pointy ears wiggled up and down as they snored softly. He kneeled down and gave the little batling a little chin scratch.

  “May I?” He always asked permission before physically touching her. Entrapta nodded. She flipped up her wielding mask, allowing for Hordak to plant a kiss on her soft cheek.

  “You forgot your lenses.” Of course, he did, he almost facepalmed. Entrapta didn’t mind obviously, she enjoyed looking at his real eyes. She found them extremely pretty. Most people who had seen Hordak in person, though a rare sight, all believed the alien had blood red pupilless eyes. When in actuality they were contacts, protecting his vulnerable misfunctioning eyes. However, really, his eyes underneath the lenses had each a long thin vertical slit pupil, dividing the eye into red and green on each side. Unhealthy veiny patterns ran across the eyes, the green and red crashed and clashed with each other.

  “Ah, I wondered why my eyes were watering. I theorised it must have been because I laid my eyes on you.”

  She playfully patted his face as she attempted to contain a chuckle, “Pfft, stupid.”

  A moment of silence followed afterwards. On many days the two enjoyed such quiet moments, simply observing the other work, it was a delight. But nowadays, those quiet moments were in short supply. And they knew it would not last.

  Hordak began to stand back up, Entrapta sighed, “Do you have to go? Today’s Forever Day! It’s meant to be celebrated as a family.”

  “I- You know I have to.”

  “We barely see each other anymore.”

  “If we don’t adhere to Queen Glimmer’s conditions, we will not see one another at all.”

  Entrapta spun around and elevated herself using her mechanical hair and wrapped herself around Hordak.

  “Mmmmm, I know, but...” She sighed to herself, “...yeah... I know, I just... miss you. Imp misses you. If it’s not you going off to fix a Queendom, then it’s you flying off on some suicide mission. Or me going off on Princess Alliance business or buried under an avalanche of paperwork at BrightMoon. We’re barely in the lab together at all. Think what that’s doing to Imp!”

  “But he goes with you. He’s safer off with you than me.”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t see you anymore. He’s just a baby! What if he forgets your face! Or your name! Or you!”

  “He will not.” He gently stroked one of her pigtails to reassure her, he gave her his best smile, “I do not like this arrangement either. I despise it in fact. On some occasions all this makes me believe that they are doing this on purpose to split us apart. For I think they believe I am a threat to you.”

  “If only they could see the precious cuddle bat that you are.” She booped his nose, or nose-like structure.

  “Heh, yes, if only.” He hoped his smile would reassure her; he was not quite sure what else he could do.

  He made his way out of Dryl. A transport to the Salineas was already waiting for him, staffed with BrightMoon guards with electro-staffs at the ready. He tried to ignore them. He rather preferred to focus on the falling snow. He had never experienced it, The Fright Zone was a desert, no life, no greenery, no snow. And he was sure that if not for his heated armour he would have hated the precipitation. But in that moment, he didn’t. He knew the falling of the flakes marked the beginning of The Forever Day. A special festive celebration on Etheria. The day of family and togetherness. He heard Entrapta talk about it for months on end. Unfortunately, he would not be able to make it this solar rotation.

  The doors to the transport craft opened, revealing The She-Ra. She was awaiting his arrival. With a smile.

  “She-Ra Adora. Why are you here?”

  “We’re cleaning up the rubble and debris in quadrant B at the Salineaian capital, aren’t we?”

  “You are joining me?”

  “Of course, that’s kind of what heroes do. And while we’re at it, I was hoping we’d catch up a little.”

  “...Oh...Kay...”

Re: peridot - they do this with Entrapta from She-Ra too. She's supposed to be in her late twenties, but they see her short stature and the fact that she's autistic coded, and go "omg this is a CHILD why r you shipping this straight up Nazi (Hordak, who's basically chronically ill and brainwashed by a cult) with this child!!!!111111"

Oh yeah I was also ran out of a fandom once for shipping a short skinny female oc in her early 30s with an old man.

I think I even saw one person from that fandom on the DNI shame list lmao.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

If you insist, Prime and Aria =p

AWOOGA (insane monkey howling) YES THANK YOU AN EXCUSE TO PUT OFF MY UNI WORK

also I’m putting this under the cut for the sake of the tl. Lets a go

Who gives nose/forehead kisses?

Between them? It’s actually pretty even. However, Prime is definitely the more touchy feely of the pair. He struggles to go more than 5 seconds without keeping his hands on her so you can imagine that frequent face smooches are common!

Who gets jealous the most?

Aria. Without a doubt. Prime may have a slightly unhinged obsession with her but he’s too confident in his own power to actually be threatened by someone else’s presence. Aria, on the other hand, has been replaced, neglected, and abandoned by her friends more times than she can count. It’s actually one of her biggest character flaws; she’s 100% one of those people that automatically assumes someone no longer cares about her because they were hanging out with other people and doesn’t bother to talk to them about it and just lets it fester…probably for the best her husband can read minds!!

Who picks the other up from the bar when they’re too drunk to drive?

Tbh Prime is an evil dictator so in that kinda situation he’d probably have a chauffeur or something bougie like that…but if we’re pretending? Aria. Mostly because she doesn’t drink while Prime has probably the weakest alcohol tolerance known to man. My man takes 2 sips of a pina colada and he’s on the floor. Lmao

Who takes care of who on sick days?

Prime is definitely more in the business of taking care of Aria when she’s sick. While Aria is definitely willing to bring him homemade soup and pat his forehead with a cold towel, he just…doesn’t get ill. He’s immortal. One of them is a living god and one of them regularly gets knocked over by a light breeze. So the caretaking generally falls on him!

Who drags the other person out into the water on beach day?

While the idea of the 2 of them even HAVING a beach day is hilarious, Aria would probably be the one to do it. Provided this was an alternate universe where she doesn’t hate swimming, she is generally the one to encourage him to leave his comfort zone! Although if the mountain dew pool proves anything, it’s that Prime is the one who likes taking other folks for a dip lmao

Who gives unprompted massages?

PRIME. I’ve never actually mentioned this but it’s a pretty important part of the story, but after Hordak attacked her, Aria lost her ability to fly. Permanently. Her wings were an extremely fragile part of her body and they just…never fully recovered. She was left with pretty severe chronic pain in her back so he’d do everything in his power to ease it.

Who drives/rides shotgun?

As mentioned earlier Prime is probably too rich to drive his own car, but if either of them had to take the wheel it would probably be Aria. Mostly just bc she has a solid 15 years of engineering experience from working with Entrapta and she’s responsible enough not to throw the vehicle off a cliff

Who brings the other lunch at work?

Aria!!!!! Cooking for others is part of her love language so she definitely tries to bring him homemade meals when she gets the chance. Does she know that Prime doesn’t need to eat? Yes. Is that going to stop her from making him a little lunchbox with the crusts cut off the sandwiches? Absolutely not. Also he eats everything she gives him. He doesn’t care about his amniotic fluid diet. When she makes him homemade cookies shaped like little hearts, HE EATS THE HOMEMADE COOKIES SHAPED LIKE LITTLE HEARTS.

Who has the better parental relationship?

(I’m a little unsure if this one is asking “who is the better parent” or “who has the better relationship with their parents” but I’m going with the latter bc it’s more interesting)

Honestly? Prime. I never really put much thought into his relationship with his parents, but back when he was just “Anillis,” he was actually a Prince who never quite lived up to his father’s expectations. Although any memory of his family was probably lost 1000s of years ago. Also you’d have to do some real fucked up shit to even come CLOSE to being as bad as Aria’s mother

Who tries to start role-playing in bed?

Neither tbh…they probably do attempt to liven things up in the bedroom but I can’t imagine role-playing would be a turn on for either of them. And besides, being bedded by an evil emperor was probably one of Aria’s fantasies anyway so…homegirl already got it good!!!!

Who’s the embarrassingly drunk dancer?

PRIME. If some Vodka so much as touches the tip of his tongue he’s stumbling over himself on the dance floor and flailing his arms around in a hopeless bid to seduce his wife. He has also gotten on the floor and tried to do the worm at some point and then fallen asleep halfway through

Who still cries watching Titanic?

Aria. No competition. She ADORES the romance genre and she will bawl her eyes out at any tragic love story she watches. Fun bonus: She flirtily implied to Prime at some point that they should re-enact the movie (in reference to the drawing scene) but he misunderstood her and took her on a surprise trip to the Northernmost part of Etheria’s ocean and then dramatically threw himself off an iceberg, to her absolute HORROR

Who firmly believes in couples costumes?

Prime for sure! He had a lot of Aria’s gowns tailored specifically so they could match, so rest assured if he ever found out about couple’s costumes he would be ALL OVER IT

Who breaks the expensive gift rule during Christmas?

PRIME. He’s the Emperor of the Universe. He’s the ultimate sugar daddy. He wouldn’t even bother setting an expensive gift rule, he’d just tell her “I’m going to spoil you rotten because I like showering you in every luxury I have available” and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Jokes on him tho bc Aria has a Leslie Knope level talent for gift giving. Babygirl doesn’t need cash bc she can make him cry with just a card!!

Who makes the other eat Breakfast?

Both, to be honest. Aria has a tendency to neglect herself when she’s stressed and Prime is usually too busy too busy with work to make time for meals, but neither of them wanna see the other go hungry. Just imagine them both in the kitchen at the same time in the morning angrily preparing their own full course, 5 star breakfast only to angrily feed it to each other

Who remembers anniversaries?

Aria is definitely more likely to remember anniversaries, but that doesn’t mean Prime forgets them entirely! She’s just tends to remember smaller occasions, like the date of their first kiss or their first dance together, while Prime focuses on bigger events and he likes to make them extra special for her!

Who brings up having kids?

Surprisingly? Horde Prime. Aria knew she wanted kids from the beginning but was willing to wait but never really talked about it, and he was the first one to actually bring it up. He never really cared for love or relationships before meeting her, so naturally having a family was the next step in their life together. Of course, this is only in a universe where Prime is alive. He died before they ever got the chance to discuss it! 😳