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a-dauntless-daffodil · 4 years

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tthhhbt thbt tbt glimmadora meta headcanon thing & languages of love thbbbbbbth

rewatching spop agaaaaiiin some things stick out

Like how Glimmer is super tactile, and Adora’s a lot more careful / guarded / stiff with how she touches people

Glimmer does hugs, hand holds, lots of casual touching, getting so close faces smoosh together. She kisses her mom on the cheek in public and literally leaps on Adora while the whole throne room is watching. Her mom, aunt, and Bow are all kinda like this so it makes sense Glimmer’d be very hands on in her affection too

Adora? She lets people hug her but mostly just stands there while it happens (with ONE exception~), she does the casual arm-slung around neck, she does maybe a shoulder pat. Even in Theymore she held onto Catra’s wrist instead of her hand. She probably hasn’t held hands properly with anyone since she was a kid

Super Scientific Conclusion: When it comes to giving or getting comfort, Glimmer is touch and words of affirmation, Adora is quality time and acts of service

ok what does that mean. well it means that-

When Bow wants to cheer Glimmer up he squishes her cheeks and reminds her she’s amazing and he believes her. And it works. Later how does Glimmer try to calm down Adora after she left the Horde? By putting her hands on Adora’s shoulders and telling her it’ll be okay

That’s how Glimmer knows to get and give affection, with a touch and some reassuring words.

She does it again with Adora in ep 3, in bed and later in Plumaria- but Plumaria showed how uncertain and scared Adora really was despite all of that. She felt out of place, wrong, and Glimmer’s touches and words weren’t enough to change that

And this is just a wishful head canon, still, I like to think Glimmer realized that by the end of ep 4

Because at the end of the episode she does something different

We know, from seeing how Adora cheers up Catra in ep 1 and the flashback when they were kids, we know Adora’s way of showing affection is to spend time with someone and to do things for / with them

Borrowing a skiff so she could take Catra for a ride on it. Going out of her way to piss off someone (Octavia) bigger and older than them after Catra got hurt in a scuffle with them...

Glimmer never saw any other that

But she did wake up to Adora curled up at the foot of her bed, after Adora’s run in with Glimmer’s very intimidating mom. She did see Adora get on the exact wrong side of Angella, then stand up to her anyway to help Glimmer get the mission to Plumaria. She’s seen Adora stand stiff as a board whenever hugged and how she never (in the beginning) leans in or reaches out when she’s clearly worried. She more likely to walk off and brood, or pull inward

So after Plumaria, when they get back to Bright Moon, what does Glimmer do?

She gets Adora a bed she’s comfortable with- she sets up a sleepover so Adora won’t be alone- She uses Adora’s way of showing affection to make Adora feel better

Acts and quality time. She comforts Adora in a way Adora understands.

It works. Adora flops over blissfully onto her hard flat bed and ends the episode laughing as the BFS have a pillow fight

In the ep 5 Glimmer is the one who is stressed and needs comfort

What’s fun is how Bow kicks back and has fun fanboying over sailors and Seahawk, while Adora is the one taking action whenever something starts frustrating Glimmer

Glimmer goes to Seaworthy to find a ship + captain? Bow enjoys the sights, Adora takes the tavern visit v e r y seriously and is clearly sizing up everyone in it

Glimmer tries to get Seahawk to take them to Salineas and Seahawk is Seahawk? Bow squees. Adora scowls

Glimmer’s bargaining attempt fails? Bow watches. Adora wins Glimmer a ship and captain via arm wrestling (which Glimmer cannot believe worked. this is the ep where poor glimmer is the lone brain cell for once and she’s Not Enjoying It)

Seahawk annoying Glimmer on the trip- Adora beats him in arm wrestling again. Sea monster blocks their path- Adora goes She-Ra on it’s tail and gets rid of it in a flash. Glimmer needs a way to get Mermista on their side and asks if Adora can fix the Sea Gate- Adora barely can even read the instruction manual and did NOT have a good experience last time she tried fixing something magical, but is 100% ready to try again anyway

She doesn’t go about it in the perfect way, but Adora spends the whole trip trying to help Glimmer

See, I think Bow picked up on something in ep 4 when Adora spoke up for Glimmer. I think he had an ah-ha moment, and after years of being the only person Glimmer had that was completely on her side no matter what, he saw that maybe that didn’t have to be true anymore

Maybe Glimmer could have two supporters- him, AND Adora. For the rest of season 1 it feels like Bow is stepping back a little and letting Adora step in when Glimmer needs a boost

Of course Adora doesn’t do support the way Bow and Glimmer do

So even though she is there for Glimmer in ep 5, just like before when it was Glimmer trying help her in ep 4, it doesn’t sink in because it’s not happening the way Glimmer is used to. It’s a miss. Which, again, I think Adora noticed

I think she noticed because in ep 6 there is a blink and you’ll miss it moment

Tiny. Teeny. Buuut it is animated so i’ll efing take it

Ep 6 starts out carefree (well, maybe not for Bow) Glimmer has had two successful missions and Adora doesn’t have to worry about She-Ra stuff because Dryl has no runestone. Both of them are playing around, teasing Bow, having fun and enjoying the perks of She-Ra for once

(side note: it’s cuuuute how Adora is showing off, plainly just for Glimmer bc Bow is busy going nooo, and Glimmer is so totally into it <3)

Then things get tense. There’s a second, a moment, when Glimmer is standing next to She-Ra and they’re both like uh-oh as Entrapta’s castle fills with Ominous Noises, and then Adora just… reaches out.

she puts her hand on Glimmer’s shoulder. Just for a moment

They were already standing and no one was staggering, so it’s not as if Adora was steadying herself or Glimmer. It looks like she just made contact?

Like she was going, Yes Glimmer is there. Hey Glimmer don’t worry I’m right here too

And that stands out because Adora really doesn’t DO touching (other than the casual arm over shoulder thing). But she did it there. After an episode of not managing to make Glimmer feel supported, she does something more like what Glimmer would do for her

Yes I AM digging too much into this I’ve watched this season dozens of times ok I’m allowed

Anyway, throughout the rest of ep 6 Glimmer is the one who scared and needs comfort again, but Adora’s on cloud nine for most of it. So when Glimmer holds Adora, cradles her, smooshes their faces together and hugs her, she’s mainly doing it for herself

Adora isn’t stressed. Snuggling Adora might not work even if Adora needed comfort- But it works for Glimmer and she really needs it right then

Later when Adora is back to normal she DOES have a moment of worry, and what does Glimmer do? A hug? Tell her it’ll be okay? Bow does that, and Adora smiles like she did when Glimmer did it in ep 4.

Glimmer knows better now, though. So as soon as she can she finds something to distract Adora, something Adora can do well and have fun with (smash moar rocks!!), and then she gleefully joins in

She uses Adora’s love language again. Spending time with her, doing something for and with her. Doing something together

And as Bow watches his two reckless idiot friends run off together, first he go -_- but then he can’t help :)

He went from Glimmer’s First And Only Friend to Guys Please Don’t Die because now Glimmer has both him AND Adora to support her

Ep 7 ..... sad. And also sweet

A bad night’s sleep leaves Glimmer groggy and short tempered and too busy waking up to notice stuff

There was something like this in the very start of ep 4 too, Glimmer tired and rushing to go to bed, flying through Adora’s tour of her new room and laughing when Adora asks if the decorative waterfall is for washing in. It wasn’t a joke and Glimmer also doesn’t see how nervous Adora is to be left alone

Second Super Scientific Conclusion: Glimmer needs her sleep

Re: ep 7 as a groggy Glimmer teases Adora about being kept awake by woodland creatures.

But then Adora looks away from her and…. There’s a pause, and then you can just see Glimmer go Oh No. The click moment of wait something is really wrong

She tries reaching out, on instinct, like she’s used to. It only ends up freaking Adora out again

Groggy Glimmer instinctively tries reassuring Adora with words, thinking it’s the whole hacked She-Ra thing that’s stressing Adora because most of Adora’s stress so fair has come from She-Ra and Glimmer knows how it feels to have and important job you’re not perfect at

Glimmer knows Adora isn’t super physical. She can’t help touching Adora’s arm though, she doesn’t want to spook her, but she also doesn’t know what else to do

So she decides in a flash (Bow’s reaction shows this wasn’t planned or discussed before) that they need to go to Mystacor! STAT!!!

Why? Because Adora needs a vacation. And Glimmer does not hesitate a second to give her one, a nice relaxing thing for all of them to do together. Exactly the kind of thing that DOES help Adora feel better

That’s Glimmer whole reason for going to Mystacor, figuring out what will help Adora

Pretty sure Glimmer spent most of that time tense because she does do several small touches with Adora even though by now she knows those won’t really work. Like in ep 6, I think they were less to reassure Adora and more mainly to help Glimmer deal with her own worry over Adora

The steam grotto scene was the moment when both of them f i n a l l y got to relax

It also showed that while Adora isn’t used to the whole physical affection thing, she does seem to like- it once she feels Safe

How she starts out hesitate as Glimmer leads her into the water and helps her ease slowly down, how she glances from there hands to Glimmer, then leans back with her and smiles

How she wakes up still smiling, look down at Glimmer snuggling against her chest and just settles back ready to bliss out again

darn sweet. SO earned

She’s not just letting the contact happen. She’s enjoying it

So later when Adora thinks Glimmer is pissed at her (eff u shadow weaver) she tries to reach out. She tries to do what Glimmer always does, she tries to connect in Glimmer’s style, the one she’s beginning to get comfortable with

……. Aaaaaand the stupid not-Glimmer shoots her down. Feh

At the end of the ep Adora tries again but doesn’t complete the motion

Glimmer, the REAL Glimmer, is there when she wakes up from a nightmare, strokes Adora’s hair and reassures her she’s right here. And Adora’s hand does this little move likes she wants to reach out again. But, she doesn’t

It IS nice though, how she settles down right away. I love how S1 Adora can sleep so easily as long as she has Glimmer there with her

8 is the prom and here the thing with Bow’s new role pops back up

Glimmer assumed he’d go with her and Adora. ‘m pretty sure he would have gone with Glimmer, Perfuma or no Perfuma, if Adora wasn’t there

BUT Adora is, Bow isn’t the only one propping up Glimmer anymore, he felt safe enough to go do his own thing for a bit

It was a big change. A big unhealed of Glimmer’s world and everything she’s been counting on. I think Bow was counting on Adora to be there and help Glimmer come to terms with the change

And Adora was. Kinda. She was trying

She was also a fish out of water and made a mess of meeting Frosta, which she could tell didn’t help Glimmer reform the Alliance plan, and so Adora spent part of the first half of the ep doing her best to patch things up with the pre-teen ruler

But when she wasn’t doing that she was steering Glimmer over to their friends (quality time), not just leading Glimmer over but actually doing the touch thing

Even so she was making the same panicky mistake as Glimmer- Doing what would make HER happy instead of figuring out what would work for Glimmer. When Glimmer acts happy for Bow and Perfuma, Adora smiles and wanders off, cheer-up mission accomplished!

Adora’s not… really very good at getting into other people’s heads. At all.

(could say the only thing straight about her is her hair and her way of thinking)

BUT! BUT!!!!!

She does seek out Glimmer

When her plan to make help out by winning over Frosta fails, she goes back to Glimmer

After three successes in a row Glimmer has relaxed into the whole princess alliance thing and Frosta joining or not joining immediately is not anywhere on the same level as the crisis of her and Bow- Bow her first and for a VERY long time ONLY friend, who is busy hanging out with his other new friends…. without her

Glimmer grew up pretty isolated in some ways. She had her mom (tense), her aunt (smother), and Bow, the only one she was sure liked her for who she was and trusted her to not be a complete screw up

Adora on the other hand, Adora grew up popular

She had a whole squad full of friends and everyone said she was the best of them all. They cheered her on when she did good, had her back during training- Lonnie especially, who might have hated Catra in part because she got some special treatment from Adora (and knew how to leverage it). Maybe because Adora wasn’t a jerk even though being Shadow Weaver’s favorite would have given her plenty of power to be one, maybe that cut down on any resentment the others might have had for her

Point is, even though Catra was special for Adora back in the Fright Zone, she wouldn’t have been alone if Catra left to hang out with someone else. And Catra wasn’t Bow- Catra was always doing her own thing anyway, sometimes without Adora, grabbing any scrap of independence she could, but always coming back again when she was ready

That’s the kind of dynamic Adora is used to. So she can’t quite get why Glimmer is so worried about Bow

Bow’s not abandoning Glimmer, he’s just doing his own thing for a bit. And now with the princess alliance Glimmer has her own ‘squad’. Why is Glimmer still stressed?

Adora doesn’t get it. So what does she do?

She stays and listens as Glimmer explains it to her

And then she does the thing Glimmer’s been doing, she comforts Glimmer the way GLIMMER would want to be comforted. A soft touch, words reassuring her that everything will be okay-

-cue interruption-

If the whole Catra bombing prom thing hadn’t happened I’m pretty sure Adora would have gotten through to Glimmer

Glimmer would have realized what Bow already knew- That Adora is here for her too now- They would have danced, maybe during the dance Bow and Glimmer would make up, and back-to-normal Glimmer would’ve gotten Frosta into the Alliance before the night was over

But I guess the plot had to happen so *shrug*

For the last few episodes we see Adora regress a bit in terms of the whole physical intimacy thing

Probably thanks to everything that happened at prom and later in the fright zone and LATER with Light Hope making her feel like she hurts everyone around her (Thank You For That Light Hope How Very Helpful)

We do get one nice thing though

Remember how Adora doesn’t do hugs very much?

Well, guess what she does right after choosing her friends over Light Hope? After coming there to try to heal Glimmer, spending half Light Hope’s talk interrupting Big Destiny Monologues with a “Hah, yeah! But what about GLIMMER”

Glimmer hugs her, relieved that she’s woken up for the second time after having her mind magically messed with-

and Adora hugs her back

Aww~

#spop #glimmadora #glimadora #glimmer #adora #fluff #meta #meta analysis #blarg blarg when will i stop rewatching thissss

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