Literally no one cares about this but I recently rewatched barbie mariposa and it reminded me of how different I view Henna's intentions compared to how a lot of other people viewed her. And I should say first and foremost that I'm not shitting on anyone's interpretation of her! I just think it's really interesting

But I remember when I first started seeing posts for mariposa and how a lot of people thought she was queercoded or just headcanoned that she liked Mariposa and it was so obvious because of how Henna was always like "we're so similar you can join me we can do this together". And like... now I can probably see that but I think it's so interesting because when I watched this movie as a kid, and even now, her intentions always felt so far from that?

I always saw it as Henna trying to take advantage of how insecure Mariposa was and manipulating her into joining. It also felt like a comparison to Elina dealing with Laverna in the first movie. Just the whole, "you have this major insecurity and I know about it and here, I can fix it :)" yknow? What she said and the way she talked to Mariposa always felt manipulative to me, especially once it got revealed that she was the villain and lying to everyone else about how good she was. Lying about wanting to help the queen, lying about wanting to help the citizens, lying about wanting to help Carlos... she was even lying about wanting to help the skeezites because it was heavily implied that she was just using them so she could take over efficiently. It just goes on and on and her trying to "help" Mariposa always felt like another example of that to me.

And I think the way Henna treats Mariposa was supposed to be a really big comparison to how everyone else treats her yknow? Like you have Willa being very supportive, no matter what Mariposa does. You have Rayna and Rayla gradually going from slightly antagonistic to learning that they're being assholes and genuinely wanting to be better people, both in general and to Mariposa. You have Carlos genuinely feeling the same way that Mariposa does, a very literal comparison to Henna just saying she understands but never actually showing it.

And maybe I'm looking into it too much but I always thought that they purposely made it really vague as to whether or not Henna actually would've kept her promises if Mariposa joined her. I don't think it was supposed to be obvious? I feel like that just goes along with how cunning and manipulative she is throughout the movie! As viewers, and even the characters themselves, we just don't know if she was telling the truth or if she was intentionally lying to get Mariposa to trust her.

Idk again I'm not shitting on any of the henna liked mariposa headcanons, I just think it's super interesting how people can interpret her actions and intentions in wildly different ways which very much goes along with her lying to everyone and being one of the best two-faced villains in the barbie cinematic universe (yes i'm including preminger. henna could beat his ass)