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lem-cup-rev · 2 years

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4.12&13 | Destiny

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)

🌸🌸🌸🌸

A strong finale, but not one that has me keysmashing!

All of the plot parts worked together really well, and at its best it felt really exciting as all the storylines raced toward their looming conclusions. There were some special character moments in there that I loved seeing. Whereas at its least interesting points, I think it was just a little bit skeletal and didn’t have as much of the fun or emotional meat that makes episodes really special.

The Adora/Glimmer conflict really hit the metal! Both storylines had a thrilling sense of danger and really clear, immediate stakes. It was very tense and eerie to have each of them kind of have their best friend as the ‘big bad’ of the finale! They both really seemed afraid of what the other might do.

Entrapta was here!!! My angel!! My little 30-year-old darling! She hasn’t missed a damn beat hanging out on murder island, she’s as unique and funny and creepy and full of really fun hair-based movement choices as ever. I really liked how it initially seems like it’s her paradise to be there with the tech, but then we realize that’s really her signal despair world, because it means giving up on relationships like what she had with Hordak.

This show’s approach to navigating the presence of an autistic major character in a story of epic fantasy stakes continues to be [roboticist voice] fascinating. She interacts with the major themes of danger and caring about others in such an unusual way, and I’m often not sure if I think it’s dismissive and insulting or fresh and brilliant. I’m not really interested in declaring it bad or good, but I love how unpackable it is.

I was struck by the sheer condescension from Adora when she tempted her to check out the First Ones spaceship. I think it felt a little disappointing to me when Entrapta confirmed she was not swayed by Bow’s expression of kindness, only the wow cool robot. But then, she also confirmed it did mean something to her, which it should, since we know connection is important to her deep down. Her hurt from feeling abandoned was such a mirror to when she first joined the Horde, but much more interesting! Does it retroactively make that scene more interesting? Maybe.

I loved the little Shadow Weaver scene where she tries to mommy Glimmer more than ever. The way she squishes her cheek… Seeing the way she constantly just gravitates to young people and does this, creates an emotional dependence and manipulates them like she doesn’t even need to think about it, is so scary. She’s such an awesome character.

It’s so neat that Glimmer is helping Scorpia do something that’s really healthy and meaningful for her, yet for a bad purpose! It’s a really interesting sort of “conflict of interests” for the audience that stories don’t usually do.

I think it’s so cool that Glimmer hired Double Trouble! The way she’s crossing lines now is so tangible and exciting. I both think it’s badass that she did it and really enjoy the tension it reflects between her and Adora.

It was so compelling and heartbreaking the way Catra wanted so badly to be friends with her Horde squad again, but ended up freaking out at them exactly the way they expected because of how messed up she is now. And I really liked the little scene where Scorpia meets the squad on their way out of the Horde. Their calm certainty about deserting was so satisfying in a way, it felt like such a fulfilling and dignified resolution for their story.

When it comes to Scorpia’s little hurt/comfort arc, some of it is affecting for me. I think the smaller the detail, the more I feel it. Like when she pulled back from hugging Glimmer, but Glimmer pulled her back in? Oh, honey… 🥹 It definitely has an impact to start tossing lots of kindness her way after she’s been a kicked puppy for 37 episodes.

I LOVED seeing Double Trouble tear apart the Horde exactly like they did to Bright Moon. The way Catra’s and Hordak’s relationship was just waiting to explode because of one little secret, and Double Trouble just had to identify it. I honestly forgot that was such a looming tension between them all season, that Catra hurt Hordak in the worst way possible and then hid it, and it was so cool the way it instantly changed everything.

The Catra-Hordak fight was metal as hell. The single shot where she jumps straight onto his laser arm and punches him straight in the face is by far my favorite. Every time his laser chopped straight through buildings, it almost took me out of the moment in a way, cause I was like “Oh my God! Does he even realize how dangerous that is??” But seeing parts of the Fright Zone half reduced to ruins afterward was extremely cool. I love a visual metaphor for interpersonal devastation. It was awesome seeing Catra get so scratched up and shaky – the fight really felt messy and desperate and dangerous. And the way Hordak instigated it trying to punish her, and yet she ultimately shredded him, felt so intense and climactic and scary.

The way Double Trouble tore Catra apart was so powerful. It was almost jarring in that it felt like they ought to become the main villain after something that utterly brutal and dominant. I love what it did for Catra’s character – the ultimate climax of all the choices she’s made so far and how they’re tearing her apart inside. And that tiny moment with Glimmer was so strong – her basically doing the last thing Glimmer would ever expect from Catra by not trying to posture or defend herself, and then relating to her about being all alone…

I’d say the scene with Light Hope is one place it felt thinner for me. We’re hitting emotional beats that are powerful in themselves, but the presentation is very straightforward and doesn’t have the kind of emotional detail that would draw me in. And I guess scenes where something visually ultimate and climactic is happening, like a huge wave of rainbow energy, are never gonna be as interesting to me as scenes full of mundane, expressive details.

I really liked the moment where Hordak was trying to just club Glimmer to death in a last desperate act. That was a special kind of scary and disturbing.

Meeting Horde Prime just made me so sad. And not in the sense that I didn’t like it. But it didn’t achieve an exciting, scary villain feeling that they might have intended. It gave me such an intense feeling of despair to see him casually obliterate Hordak’s power and ego, and to think about how he’s conquered tons of planets with no sign of stopping.

He’s sexy though!

And I liked how he was about to just kill Glimmer on the spot. In what way? He had his hand on her cheek, was he going to explode her head? *shivers*

“We’re gonna save the universe” has got to be one of the least interesting lines you can end on. Sorry, no offense! But please give me something more characterful and evocative.

This season was so much fun!!

I’m so happy I decided to rewatch the show and close-read every episode, because I’m getting more from it than ever. I remembered the series being pretty, fun, romantic, and having my favorite princessy vibes, but I had no idea just how much there was for me to like.

Time for the home stretch, girls!

Next time: She-Ra… IN SPACE!

#review #no spoilers #episode #4⭐️#she-ra and the princesses of power #spop #she ra and the princesses of power

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nazumichi · 3 years

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Glimmadora

" My abusive Mom found out about our engagement" "Shit" Au

Luckily, Adora was always welcome in the Bright Moon household, which gave her and her hopefully-sometime-in-the-future fiancé time to scheme over take out.

“We could elope,” Glimmer suggested, quick to shift the subject from her previous plan, which was to murder Adora’s mom.

She did like that plan better, she had to admit.

#glimmer murders shadow weaver; a story by me #raii writes a lot #raiis anons #spop #glimmadora

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testudoaubrei-blog · 3 years

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“I’m loyal, that’s my whole thing.” - Scorpia, Season 4 Episode 6, Princess Scorpia

“Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless” - Lonnie, Season 4 Episode 5, Protocol

Rewatching Season 4, I just finished Princess Scorpia. This is an episode that has always stuck with me, especially the A plot of Scorpia realizing how badly Catra has treated her and everyone else and deciding to leave. One thing I’ve been thinking about since I finished the series, though, is what this episode is telling us on a larger level. Looking beyond the character arcs and more at this show’s larger themes and message. Because this show is very much a show that says things, made by people who believe them. That earnestness and depth is one reason I keep coming back to it.

In the pull-quote above, and throughout the episode and before it, Scorpia defines herself in terms of loyalty. It is her identity - as she says, that’s what Scorpions do, they’re loyal. Her actions for three and a half seasons bear this out. When she first shows up, she tries to position herself as Catra’s new best friend, the one who won’t leave her and will stick by her no matter what. And that’s what she does, until this episode. She sticks by Catra through Catra’s increasingly villainous plots and erratic behavior. But she doesn’t just stick around. Until the portal, she barely contradicts Catra, and even afterwards, does so only furtively and immediately backs away as soon as Catra pushes back. For more than a year of show time, Scorpia has not just stood by Catra, or supported her, she’s actively assisted her in her most villainous and destructive acts. Scorpia is fighting by Catra’s side, eagerly carrying out her orders, and doing her utmost to see that Catra succeeds. But her loyalty goes beyond this practical help. Because for all that Catra loudly declares that she doesn’t need a new best friend, she consistently seeks out connection throughout the show, even when she’s at her most isolated in season 4. She needs moral support, and connection, and to know that she isn’t alone. Scorpia provides that, and keeps Catra going. Though Scropia isn’t initiating Catra’s various misdeeds, she’s assisting and supporting Catra throughout. On a personal, psychological level, the only word that seems adequate for this is ‘ennabling’ - Scorpia, sweet as she is, is Catra’s enabler. We see in the next few episodes what happens when Catra doesn’t have Scorpia’s support - she breaks down, and realizes that her actions really do have consequences, and that the affection she took for granted for so many years is something she can’t live without. But as long as Scorpia’s still around, Catra can’t make that realization.

Now I’m not going to say that Scorpia is morally culpable for Catra’s own actions. She’s not. Catra is solely responsible for her various betrayals, manipulations, violent outbursts and assorted murder attempts against...most of the rest of the cast (though being raised by Shadow Weaver sure as shit is a mitigating factor). But while Catra is obviously being a bad friend to Scorpia throughout, Scorpia isn’t actually being as supportive or helpful to Catra as she thinks, because Catra doesn’t actually need unconditional support, she needs people to be honest with her and express to her how she’s hurting them. She needs people who will stand up for themselves just as she needs to take responsibility for her own actions. This is part of why she and Adora have such a healthy dynamic in season 5 - Adora doesn’t take her crap, and Catra takes responsibility for her crap.

However, Scorpia -is- responsible for her own actions. And as I said above, she’s been with Catra every step of the way as Catra has attacked just about everyone and made war on Etheria. On a larger, political level, Scorpia is a willing participant in upholding the Horde’s oppressive system, and executing a war of aggression and colonization against innocent people. Speaking of colonization, perversely, she’s loyal to the very organization that dispossessed her and literally stole her birthright, then discarded it like a useless trinket when it was no longer useful to them. No one ever suggests ‘why don’t we let Scorpia connect with ~her runestone~’ until Glimmer does (and Glimmer’s motivations and arguments aren’t exactly forthright). Scorpia’s loyalty makes her an accomplice in her own oppression (like a bunch of the themes in this show there’s some interesting post-colonial stuff that the show doesn’t fully explore, probably because Noelle and the crew felt self-conscious about telling a post colonial story, or just didn’t know where to go with it). Interestingly, Scorpia’s loyalty to the Horde here parallels her loyalty to Catra, which has made her completely disregard her own wellbeing, which is the most obvious take away from the episode.

But I would argue that everything above shows that for Scorpia loyalty has been a way of avoiding developing her own moral compass. Scorpia repeatedly shoves aside questions of right or wrong in favor of being loyal to her friends and to the Horde. Loyalty has made Scorpia not only willing to accept her own mistreatment, but to willingly mistreat others, and to keep herself from asking any hard questions about what she’s doing or why. This is despite the fact that Scorpia is, by inclination, an incredibly gentle, kind and compassionate person. She’s willing to silence the best parts of her nature out of loyalty to Catra and the Horde. In the end, she also commits acts of violence and perpetuates the oppression of Etheria. And this is so insightful, because we see this sort of thing in our world all the time. So many oppressive institutions depend upon the loyalty of their members to keep them ‘just following orders’; so many abusive systems depend upon loyalty to stifle dissent and silence potential whistleblowers before they even speak. We see this in some of the most oppressive institutions and the worst scandals in our own society, and looking back through human history we see it in some of our nation’s and our species' most infamous crimes.

And when we look at the Horde as a system that Hordak has built in imitation of his elder brother’s empire, we see just how central loyalty is an ethos. Hordak himself is motivated entirely by loyalty to Prime - being a former clone, he spends the entire series not fully capable of accepting himself as an autonomous being (even when he acts like one and enjoys it, there’s some fucked up religious shit there that I won’t get into). He seems to have instilled this in his followers. The Horde Trio, Catra and Scorpia all hold loyalty as one of their highest values. Catra clings to it as her biggest accusation against Adora - that she was disloyal, as expressed in Catra’s perception that Adora broke her promise and abandoned her. Loyalty keeps the Horde Trio together and fighting for the Horde, and Scorpia with Catra. I think we can read between the lines and say the Horde runs on loyalty (as well as fear) and this is a very insightful portrayal of oppressive military and paramilitary institutions like armies of conquest and occupation and other instruments of state violence.

There’s another, related way of looking at how a sole reliance on loyalty as a moral framework has stunted Scorpia’s moral growth, and I think that brings together both the ways that it makes Scorpia willing to accept her mistreatment and participate in the mistreatment of others. Namely, loyalty in the Horde style isn’t just sticking with someone or something, but subsuming your own will into theirs. Following orders. Supporting your friend in what they do no matter what. Whatever you call it, it’s about turning off your own self - your self preservation, your self respect, your conscience, whatever other things you value - and just going along with what the person or institution you are loyal to wants you to do. And this is where Horde loyalty goes full circle, back to its origin - Horde Prime, the narcissistic self-made god who wishes to control or destroy everything that is not himself. Loyalty as Hordak conceived of it and as the Horde believes in it is a reflection of Prime's absolute control over all his domain.

In a way, self-determination is one of this show’s highest values (together with love). It’s at the heart of Adora’s 5-season, 3 year struggle to become her own woman and her own hero as she shrugs off one imposed destiny and then another and finally embraces what she wants. In a more negative form, it’s at the heart of Catra’s arc, as she finally accepts responsibility for her own actions and their consequences and starts working to make a world that she actually wants to live in, as well as admit to herself that what she really wants is love. And I could go on. This self-determination is existentially, obviously threatened by Prime chipping people, but it is also stunted by horde-style loyalty that demands unquestioning support and obedience.

Both the Horde Trio and Scorpia reject the Horde’s ideal of loyalty and walk away, but I think it’s interesting how they do it. Neither rejects loyalty entirely (not on the way Adora does) - the Trio, realistically, remain loyal to each other and simply walk away and walk out of the war (this might save their lives), joining the other disillusioned cynics in the Crimson Wastes. They reject loyalty to the horde and embrace a more supportive and respectful form of loyalty to each other. Scorpia leaves, but she actually comes to her crisis and makes her decision out of loyalty, and because it’s clear that her loyalty isn’t returned. The immediate situation - loyalty to Emily and Entrapta’s memory on one hand and Catra’s orders on the others - creates the conflict between loyalties that forces Scorpia to actually make her own choice rather than deferring to Catra. But she also reflects how Catra betrayed her loyalty to Entrapta, and thus how all of her friends’ loyalty to Catra is not returned.This is another point about horde-style loyalty - it’s one way - Hordak or Catra will demand your loyalty, but they feel no obligation to return it, which reflects Prime’s view of every other being in the universe as disposable. It’s only when she’s with the Princesses that Scorpia starts to find a new moral center, though sticking up for and protecting her friends remains important to her. In neither case, though, are these kinds of loyalty coming at the cost of either the Trio or Scorpia’s autonomy or ability to make moral choices of their own. In the very next episode, she says she wants to 'be A good friend' which is how the Princesses typically describe sticking together, which is a much more active and holistic concept than 'loyalty'. Scorpia confesses that she doesn't even know how, but she wants to learn and thinks the princesses can teach her.

There's another interesting counterexample to Horde Loyalty. Adora repeatedly breaks with the people around her to do what is right. First she leaves the Horde, then walks away from Catra by stages when it is clear that Catra is going to continue to harm other people and Etheria. Then she walks away from Glimmer, defies Light Hope and breaks loyalty with her supposed destiny and purposes as well as loyalty to the homelans she has never known. By season 5, Adora is loyal only to herself and the people she cares about, but she isn't constraining her will to anyone else's. For all that she seems like a rule follower Adora has a rebellious streak a mile wide, and she will do what is right, no matter what. This is what allows her to save the universe 3 times.

So the show’s argument is that loyalty is not a good moral framework to base all of our actions around. I don’t think it goes so far as saying that loyalty has no place in our ethics (being a good friend, which is such a huge part of the show, certainly includes loyalty, especially sticking with people when the going gets tough), but the show stresses time and again that being loyal to something or someone shouldn’t make you disregard yourself and what you think is right. Because it’s only by living out our own values and taking responsibility for our own actions that we can come into our own as moral beings. Moreover, if we insist on maintaining loyalty to institutions that oppress us and others, we can’t dismantle the systems of oppression that are holding us and other people down. (Yes, this is a pretty radical message, but I suspect that Noelle is some kind of anarchist? Anyway, it’s a thing.)

Okay, so that’s what I, a 35 year old, get from this kids show. I think it’s also worth pointing out that this lesson applies to younger viewers too, in their most immediate lives. Younger viewers will have had friends who didn’t treat them well, or might not have treated other people well, and who might have pressured them into participating in the mistreatment of others (this is kind of how bullying works a lot of the time). I think it’s important that younger viewers see how being a good friend never means disrespecting yourself or other people and it means a lot to me that She-Ra shows this in such a nuanced and realistic way.

#she ra #she ra spoilers #spop #she ra netflix #she ra and the princesses of power #meta #analysis #scorpia

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princessofgayskull · 3 years

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Hi sunflower, what's your thoughts on T Swift's Betty being a catradora song???

Me, taking a break from spop to focus on my mental health and setting better boundaries:

Me, reading this ask:

This ask woke me up from like a deep, sleeping beauty type slumber, not joking. I don’t get asked to talk about Taylor Swift often, despite being a fan of hers since I was nine years old (I’m 22 now *wink*) and we are about to find out why. But I pride myself on taking any fiction piece of media I interact with and connecting it somehow to Taylor Swift. I can do so to varying degrees of success (usually depends on the ships and romance of the world) but there are so many songs of Taylor’s that have just fit Catradora so well for me, both in and out of canon.

Some of my favorite examples: out of the woods (AND IT KEPT ME UP AT NIGHT WHEN NOELLE SAID THIS WAS HER TAYLOR SWIFT SONG FOR CATRADORA LIKE GAH CASUAL TS LISTENERS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND) bad blood, lwymd, don’t blame, dancing with our hands tied, the archer, breathe, you’re not sorry, the way I loved you, forever & always, should’ve said no, safe & sound- I could go on.

But I won’t because I wanna stay on topic and talk about betty. Now I have a number of songs from the folklore/evermore series that are for me catradora songs (we’ll get to that in a minute) but this one is… challenging. Because I could be like “yes, because [insert casual reason here]” or “no, because [insert casual reason here]” but I can’t because Taylor feeds her children well and there’s several aspects of this song I feel like should be considered.

This biggest one to be considered, for me, is the love triangle aspect. Folklore features at length the betty/james/Augustine love triangle, each of them having one main song on the album from their POV. Betty's is cardigan, augustine’s is august, and james’ is betty. (also I’m going to throw out the gender component for a second; I know taylor says that Betty is about a guy’s apology and I totally vibe with her reasons why she wanted to write a song about a boy apologizing BECAUSE HOW GREAT WOULD THAT BE?) The love triangle makes the application of Catradora iffy at best. Because it’s like, who would be who? I am going to go out on a limb and assume that you’re seeing Catra as James? I think that personality wise, Adora as Betty and Catra as James is not a stone’s throw away from fitting actually really well. Adora’s canon journey is one of coming to realize “I know what I want and I know that it’s okay to want it” and a big part of Catra’s arc is her being like “Well shit… there goes my plans. Kind of feeling like a dumbass rn” especially in s4/s5.

(That s4/s5 distinction is important; I’ll show why in a second)

But for me, there’s no augustine. Or one that’s obvious anyway. I never imagined that either Catra or Adora dated or even had any inclinations with anyone else during the five season run- that’s just my personal opinion, people are completely welcome to feel free to disagree. I don’t think Catra acted even out of distraction with Scorpia or DT, and I think Adora was so focused on being She Ra that when she wasn’t thinking about failing/abandoning Catra when she alloted time to do so, she was thinking about the crushing weight of her responsibilities. So you know, not that much time to get back out there. So I rule out what causes James to apologize in the first place- cheating.

Side note about James cheating- I’m pretty sure Taylor confirmed this, in the long pond studio sessions doc, when she’s telling Jack Antonoff (MY BOY JACK) and Aaron Dessner ( GRAMMY AWARD WINNING KING) that James “was a fool!” And James did sleep with Augustine as confirmed in august, but cardigan makes it seem like he was definitely dating Betty before the summer. Maybe Taylor took inspiration from friends and they “were on break.” I also believe that the kiss in the Heart is the first kiss, that Catra and Adora were never ‘together’ together before Adora found the sword and defected (again, that’s just an opinion, but Adora just looks so wonderfully gobsmacked), so…

We can rule out cheating, and I think we can accomplish this and still reserve the essential meaning of the song of “I did something wrong, I see that now, I apologize for doing it, and I still love you” by widening the lens of what the “did something wrong” was (or “did something bad” you know *wink*). In that wider lens really you could fit either Catra or Adora into the song, but I’m still going to assume Catra is the James in this scenario based on how much of her redemption arc is formed around her refusal to say sorry and then eventually doing so. Of course there is no standing your porchlight but rather standing while wrestling a bunch of murderous clones…. Hmm….

But there are some stupid friends! I wholeheartedly believe Catra is James because of the dissing of Betty’s friends. That’s what Catra does to Bow, Glimmer and the rebellion et al., for most of the show and by the end of s4 she has no friends for Adora to even mock (terrible and cruel of me, I know, but it’s true). Also I know people are like “he called her friends stupid and then expected betty to take him back?” but I scream sing the line “WILL YOU KISS ME ON THE PORCH IN FRONT OF ALL YOUR STUPID FRIENDS?” every time. It brings me serotonin.

Along those lines we can ask “Who’s Inez?” in this situation. When I think gossip no one from the show really comes to mind, well, expect for Double Trouble. But Double Trouble doesn’t ever speak to Adora about Catra. This happens vice-versa, and in Betty, James reveals that Inez told Betty he cheated on her.

I want to say something controversial… Glimmer comes to mind when I think “who’s the Inez?” And this is based off of two things: 1) Inez’s closeness to Betty, and 2) Inez drags James out to dry, rightfully so. And when I think of that I think of Glimmer screaming “Do one good thing in your life!” directly in Catra’s face. James gives Inez a bad wrap in Betty. Not cool James.

Of course there’s the pivotal, “would you tell me to go fuck myself?/ or lead me to the garden?” To me this a fun way of showing there’s vulnerability to what James is doing, so automatically I’m led to is the scene where Catra asks Adora to stay, or each time in s5 when Catra risks, basically an identity crisis to let Adora in how she really feels, but there’s always the potential that Adora could spurn her by not returning her feelings or rejecting her outright.

I think the best argument that can be made for “is betty a catradora song” can really be encapsulated by the lyric(s): “the worst thing that I ever did is what I did to you” and “the only thing I wanna do is make it up to you.” That is what about the song SCREAMS Catra to me. And yeah, it could be argued that Adora hurt Catra pretty brutally (Shadow Weaver makes that point EVEN THOUGH SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO) that she messed up by abandoning Catra- but Adora feels guilt for... literally breathing. Adora is the quintessential embodiment of “pick your battles, no that’s too many battles, put some back,” but Catra picked one battle first and foremost (yes, she had a few others but this was the one) and that was Adora. Everything that motivated her was surrounded around a narrative of surpassing Adora for a multitude of reasons, and because of that she pretty much hurts Adora every chance she gets after Promise. Adora is really Catra’s first casualty, it makes sense that she has to be her first apology. And I think that after being vibed checked back to back by DT and Glimmer and realizing “oh hey fuck, I’m still in love with her” and then almost dying just to not die because Adora saves her, I think much of Catra’s motivation shifts to “how to do I get Adora to want to stay?”

That’s my logic for how Betty could be a catradora song in canon. Now not all of my Taylor associations are with canon catradora, many of them do belong to uws catradora, because it’s a lot easier to apply the more modern details of Taylor’s songs to a modern au. The song Breathe is big that way. (it’s in Upper West Side, it’s the song Adora listens to and cries to after that first ride, I just never mentioned that it was taylor because my conditioned reaction to bringing up taylor is to have my head bit off with someone’s semi incorrect and slightly sexist opinion that I never, ever ask for) And this ask got me thinking about what it would look like if I applied not Catradora to Betty, but Betty to Catradora. What would it look like if Catra skateboarded and wore black lipstick, Adora wore a cardigan and they had homeroom together until Catra really messed up? What would it look like if they were seventeen when they admitted their feelings for each other instead of 21? What would it look like if they spent a summer fighting but dreaming of each other? What would their love story look like if Catra and Adora were in that town where Taylor envisioned this “same event that affected three people in different ways?”

I think it’d look something like this.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31141973/chapters/76952048

what do you guys think?

quick but INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT thank you to @gimme-tea-bitch for helping me with this, being my beta, and listening to me talk about folklore/evermore.

#I am literally SHAKING as I post this you guys have no idea #like vibrating through a wall shaking #i've been working on this for like the past two months #and I know everyone wants cruel summer but my goblin brain is like #AHHHHHHHH WRITE A FOLKLORIAN AU FOR CATRA AND ADORA YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO #IT'S 23K WORDS NO ONE WILL NOTICE #this was supposed to go up with two parts but tbh with you guys i have high key been feeling when jenny slate said #'i don't get the love until something beautiful goes out'#please be gentle with me

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not-your-girl2 · 4 years

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Things in the new season of She-Ra that made me feel.

*spoilers ahead*

-say it with me kids they bond over their love of Adora

-catra"theres no one left who cares about me" cuts to Adora's face

-BEST FRIEND SQUAD

-catras back story

-"YOUR CATRA"

-catra getting brainwashed

-CATRA AND ADORA LOVE EACHOTHER SO GOT DAMN MUCH

-catra being made to fight adora

-"you matter to me"

-adora fucking yeeting herself off a ledge for catra

-i swear to fucking god if Catra dies

-adora bringing back she ra to save catra

-that shit hurted

-catras fucking weak lil hey Adora and their huggggggggggggggg

-"I'm gonna go check on Catra again"

-"I never hated you"

-adora forcing Catra against the wall

-THEY R IN LOVE

-catra asking Adora to stay

-im gonna break a bowl they love each other so damn much

-adora just holding Catra all the timeee

-ok Adora and Catra r married

-adoras blush at Catra being reckless

-bow thinking Catra is cute

-i love them

-adora caring about Catra in every situation

-catra and Adora holding hands

-bow and glimmer adopting catra

-NETOSSA AND SPINNERELLA

-"your my weakness"

-perfuma convincing Catra to keep her heart open for adora

-milog represents catras emotions cause they bonded and it jumped on Adora and nuzzled and purred on her. COINCIDENCE I THINK NOTTTTT

-whenever entrapta puts the ends of her pony tails together she's essentially doing 👉👈

-catra having ptsd cause of shadow weaver I hate her

-adora looking after catra

-i will PUNCH SHADOW WEAVER I have no sympathy for her

-catra jumping into fire to save adora

-and the whole lil bit after that is gayyyy™

-im gonna mc murder shadow weaver stop getting in the WAY OF MY SHIPSSSSSSS

-"I need you" "no you don't u never did"

-what THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKK

-"Adora doesn't want me, not like how I want her"

-hologram Catra almost kissing adora

-"we have to warn adora"

-adora needs catra

-she needs herrrrrrrr

-Adora best not die I will rip my eyeballs out

-catra needs adora

-"help me save adora"

-"I'll stay, I'll find her"

-"I can't loose her again ok"

-glimmer and Catra hugging

-bow saying Catra is apart of the best friend squad

-glimmer and bow saying I love you

-bow kissing glimmers forhead

-mara talking to adora

-pls don't hurt my bby

-seahawk and mermista are mum and dad

-seahawk confessing his love for mermista

-"hey adora"

-to many emotions

-"your adora"

-they hug

-the forehead touch

-the caressing of cheeks

-why

-they r so dumbbbbbbbbb

-horak and entrapta r married

-oh fuck

-horde prime is the worst

-if Adora died I'm quitting

-im jumping off a bridge

-"I love you, I always have, so just this once, stay"

-im sobbingggg

-"I love you too"

-they kissed

-CATRADORA IS CANNON

-THEY KISSED

-catra and Adoras love literally saved eveyone

-the ending is so absolutely gay

-we won

-the gays won

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golden-redhead · 4 years

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My experience with spop was this - I knew nothing beforehand. saw how the Internet exploded over their kiss and thought "cute LGBTQ couple endgame? I'm in." started binging and I just kept waiting for them to grow closer but all I got was more abusive behavior? Then I finished s5 and just couldn't believe that that was it? That's how they ended up together? That's what got the Internet celebrating? I think knowing the endgame and how people raved over it made the experience worse for me tbh.

Oof, I honestly can’t imagine watching the show knowing how it ends, excited about getting some wlw rep we crave so much and then... that. I think some of the shows issues must get glaringly obvious if you actually watch it all as opposed to those of us who had to wait months before a new batch of episodes and had time to hype themselves out and just enjoyed the contents of s5 in this slight disconnect from the previous seasons. I am not entirely opposed against catradora (although I do not like it and do not ship it, I just dislike this kind of dynamic, it’s very clearly not my thing even if you completely erase the element of abuse and ignore the fact that they don’t hold the same beliefs or values like, at all), but the dedication with which the show did everything to avoid addressing all the shit that they should have addressed in order for the ending and Catra’s redemption to work is just... astounding, really.

Like, imagine going SO OUT OF YOUR WAY and still not getting it right.

For one, Catra never apologizes, not really, because I can hardly count her saying “I’m sorry for everything” as an apology. One of the rules of sincere apologies is that you actually acknowledge what you did wrong, apologizing for unspecified ‘everything’ is lazy and disrespectful and makes it look like some way to just take it off the list and be done with that part of Catra’s redemption.

Two, talking with other fans really made me wonder how the supposed target audience, so kids aged 7 and older, perceive that ending, because I have an impression that they might have a hard time wrapping their head around it. I’ve heard that some kids are actually scared of Catra? And, honestly, I can see that, yeah. Not to mention just the message that all your abuser needs is for you to prioritize them and stay... Yeah. Um, nope.

Three, my biggest issue as someone who genuinely loved the shows and the characters, my biggest complain is how everything had to be tossed aside in order to make catradora happen. Everything. Quite literally.

Scorpia getting over Catra, getting friends and appreciation she deserved? Accepting her role of a princess? Forming meaningful and healthy friendships and finding her place in the world? Fuck it, let’s chip her for like, half the season and ignore her conflict with Catra entirely. THE FUCKING DISRESPECT OF THAT.

Adora and Glimmer’s argument? You know, the driving force and main conflict of the entire 4th season? Yeah, yeah, let’s have Adora dismiss Glimmer’s apologies and never address that ever again, shall we?

Angella? Pff, who? Never heard of her!

Micah interacting with Glimmer for like, all of 2 minutes. 95% of that time fighting her while chipped by the bad guy. Um... okay. So much for the reunion with a daughter you didn’t see since she was, um, 5 at most?

Glimmer’s powers? The ones she’s been mastering and being insecure about episode one? Which were a huge part of why she even trusted Shadow Weaver in the first place? Yeah, they’re useless 3/4 of the season and then given to Melog. You know, that new character who is ridiculously overpowered and is basically Catra’s glorified moral support cat, despite being a sentient, intelligent being, the sole survivor of its planet. Of-fucking-course.

Oh, speaking of Shadow Weaver! The fucking HYPOCRISY of having a full season of Glimmer and Adora arguing over Glimmer choosing to work with her only to... Have Adora work with her. The entire season. And never mentioning it again. SURE. BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE.

(btw, I love how the show framed their conflict as something where Adora is basically 100% in the right... but when you think about it, Glimmer actually made much more solid points that actually turned to be true. the more you know!)

Mermista lost her entire kingdom because of Catra? Yeah, better let’s get her chipped too, before she has a chance to question why they’re working with the kitty lady who was about to murder them only 2 minutes ago.

Adora spent 4 seasons trying to learn more about her past? Let’s drop it. Just because. Don’t question it, folks. Seriously, don’t.

Adora was about to die? Well, now she doesn’t! Why? Uh, um, what do you mean why, don’t you know that magical gay kisses fix everything? Smh.

I just... This is bad writing, okay?

And it feels like such an insult, because up until the last season I think the writing was really solid, the themes of abuse were handled very well, with respect and realistically, Adora’s conflicted feelings about She-ra, her destiny and her choice in all of this were interesting and believable, Glimmer was a great female character allowed to be (and do) things that female characters aren’t usually allowed to be, the supporting cast was strong and loveable and Prime... God, the way Horde Prime was set up as this intimidating, scary, bigger than the universe villain was genius. Hell, even at the beginning of s5 I had chills every time he was on screen. I was so excited about him, but every episode he was getting worse and worse until he became so meh I felt like crying.

And don’t even get me started on Catra saying that she saved Glimmer for Adora. This? This is when I knew there’s no saving this season. This was a slap to the face and the clearest sign that it was never about properly redeeming Catra at all, just getting her what she wanted.

And it’s a shame, too, because in a lot of ways Catra is a very interesting and compelling character who, despite what it looks like, in a lot of ways got the short end of the stick, because instead of telling a realistic, mature story about personal growth, they chose what was basically a instant forgiveness route and never showed Catra actually dealing with both what she’s gone through and what she’s done. Which is a shame and a huge disservice to Catra’s character.

So... yeah. Sorry about that rant, you are so valid, Anon, and I’m sorry.

#spop critical #catradora critical #complaining

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aros001 · 3 years

Text

Going in blind: Watching season 5 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: Well...that dinner got dark. From what other fans have told me apparently Glimmer gets a lot of hate for her decisions during the series and I just find that odd. I was more annoyed with her in the early seasons where her actions were more harmless simply because she had no patience and wouldn't listen because of her immaturity. Season 4 and here though? Even her most reckless and risky actions have at least been fueled by the genuine desire to keep people safe during a very hard situation. Even here, yeah, she tells Prime something it's very bad for him to know but he was going to have Adora and everyone else literally murdered before her eyes if she didn't. I can't really be mad at Glimmer for making a bad choice when it flows logically and fueled by the desire to keep the people she cares about from being slaughtered.

I don't think we've ever seen Catra this completely at the mercy of another person before, save maybe for Shadow Weaver when she was a child. She has nothing to offer that Prime doesn't already possess. Nothing he wants that he can't get for himself. Her relationship with everyone these past few seasons have been either "I'm your commander and you have to do what I say" or "You are my commander and here's the reason you have to keep me around". This time she has nothing to protect herself behind and the only reason she's still around is because Prime might think of a use for her later.

I love having Scorpia on the heroes' side.

Episode 2: That ending though.

I think what helps elevate Entrapta for me and keeps her for being annoying or irritating is that the show really sells that she just genuinely has trouble understanding why she should/shouldn't be doing certain things. It's not stupidity or even pure self-absorption, she just struggles with people and social ques while machines and science is a lot more straightforward. Heck, she was probably able to bond so well with Hordak because work together in the lab was them meeting on a common middle ground she could understand and relax in. The way she's trying to overcome the issue to help save Glimmer reminds me a little of Mob from Mob Psycho 100, feeling a little frustrated in not understanding something that she knows she should be.

Episode 3: Anybody else get a Disney's Hercules vibes at the end there?

Catra: "Besides, O Oneness, you can't beat her! She has no weaknesses! She's gonna kick your...!"

Prime, smiling: "I think she does, little sister." [Strokes Catra's hair] "I truly think...she does."

This episode really sold how completely isolated Catra is. With the sole exception of Glimmer, she's in space, no idea where exactly she is, onboard a ship filled with nothing but Prime and hundreds of cultist clones. Throughout the entire series we've seen Catra push everyone away and now that she's in a situation where she is almost well and truly on her own with no power, freedom, or authority, she seeks out the one other person around to find any sense of comfort in. Despite everything, Catra doesn't like being alone.

Little child Catra lashing out because she didn't want Adora to have any friends other than her kind of reminds me of Glimmer and Bow during the Princess Prom episode. I imagine it's the same mentality. Growing up in isolation, even if in different forms, and finding only that one person they feel thay can really lean on, there is that fear that they'll find someone else they like more and start caring about them less, or even outright stop. The difference is Bow set Glimmer straight, assuring her he'll always be her friend no matter what but he's not going to be just solely dedicated to her. Her fear was understandable but she was not respecting him as a friend either. Adora never really had that with Catra, one because she was much younger and less mature than Bow, and Catra was probably all she had too, to an extent. As we saw season 1, she was always trying to look after her, even when Catra needed to take responsibility for herself. Bow is not Glimmer's keeper, while Adora too often was that for Catra, so Bow and Glimmer have a better foundation of mutual respect while Adora and Catra's dynamic has been really screwed up for a long time.

Kind of tying into that, despite all that's happened between them, the minute Adora hears Catra's in distress she starts panicking and tearing up. The last time they saw each other they were very much enemies and Adora was done reaching her hand out to her. I suppose you could make the argument she's really been hoping all this time that Catra would finally do the right thing for once, just probably didn't expect it to be like this.

Prime better not mind wipe Catra like he did Hordak.

Episode 4: See, calling the heroes the rebellion now makes sense since they are rebelling against the established power, which is Prime.

Love that trick with the reflections, where you can sort of see/sort of can't see She-Ra. A nice little tease for what I imagine will be a big reveal later.

I really like that explanation for what Bow's going through. Last season's finale was the last he'd seen Glimmer and was desperately trying to save her, and he's been consistently worried for her since then. Now that she's safe he's starting to let himself process his other emotions towards her, and I totally get it. It's hard to be mad at someone when you're also terrified over what might be happening to them, even if your anger is justified. While I get why Glimmer last season did what she thought she had to, it was still a big risk that Bow warned her about and she didn't listen, putting them all in danger. This situation and Glimmer's words is a very mature way of handle this topic. He's not wrong for being mad and it's not a contradiction to what we've been seeing from him this season. Humans and emotions are complicated.

Episode 5: SHE HAS PAAAAAAAAANTS!!! (I will miss the cape though)

That almost makes up for them cutting Catra hair. Seriously, that mane was beautiful!

But boy, speaking of Hercules, that return of She-Ra definitely felt like Hercules emerging from the pool of souls to save Meg.

With the one clone being disconnected from the hive mind and having a breakdown over it, that does make me wonder if Hordak has been connected to it. Wasn't he deemed a defect because Prime couldn't connect to his mind? I suppose it's possible that flaw was corrected. Clearly Prime can take over minds other than just his clones, like with Catra. But if he could do that I'm wondering why he just didn't when Hordak was first created and he instead cast him out to Etheria.

Was Catra purring at the end? I swear there was a sound that sounded like purring.

Episode 6: Assimilation is easily one of my biggest fears in fiction, be it zombies, Borgs and Cybermen, Get Out, the freaking Sapphire Dragon from Xiaolin Showdown that scared the hell out of me as a kid! Just the concept of having your free will and autonomy completely ripped away from you, potentially with you still being aware but unable to do anything about it, is horrifying! At least with Prime's chips the process is reversible.

Anyway, in lighter plots, I kind of love Wrong Hordak. He's really funny. I feel bad that he's being deliberately misled, but he really shouldn't be following Prime anyway, so...

I do like that Adora is being a little more tough on Catra. She needs kindness, yes, but she also needs honesty and discipline, the kind that has actual love and care behind it, unlike what she got from Shadow Weaver. Adora is genuinely trying to help so Catra needs to stop acting like a brat and LET HER HELP.

Episode 7: Catra was definitely purring.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume people probably ship Scorpia and Perfuma. Not that I have any problem with that. It's like the Midoriya/Todoroki ship; I don't ship it myself but I totally get why others do. It's a relationship based in mutual respect and one of the characters having a significantly positive effect on the life of the other. As long as the shipper themselves is not horrifically toxic, I don't care.

Also, I don't think I've ever been so intimidated by Mermista before than I was with that one shot of her in silhouette, just before the reveal she was chipped.

Episode 8: Okay, I definitely love Wrong Hordak. Just that realization of his. "Horde Prime...lied to us..." There's just something about it that's so full of character. Obviously he's a brainwashed clone but he was truly devoted to Prime and just to find out that he would keep something so big from them, from the hive mind that's supposed to be so open to him and each other, it destroys everything he ever believed in. It's hilarious to watch him prepare to lead his brothers in a revolt against Prime.

I assume magic is Prime's "weakness" in that he himself cannot control it. Obviously he can control magical beings like Spinnerella and have them use magic but magic itself is too free and too powerful for him to contain and fully fight back against. He's all about order and stillness and magic is basically chaos.

Episode 9: I like to believe the mushroom kingdom they saved is a Mario reference.

Something I like in hero stories is "the power of a name" or "the power of a symbol". Something as simple as Superman's S-shield can have so much weight and meaning behind it just because of the person it's tied to. She-Ra isn't just a powerful warrior to the people of Etheria, she's a hero of legend. We saw it touched on even back in season 1 how much Adora returning She-Ra to the world meant to everyone. She-Ra to them is a symbol of hope. If they have her on their side, then they believe they might be able to win and with that ordinary people can find the strength to fight too. It's something I think the Green Lantern put best with how the Blue Rings of hope supercharge the Green Rings of will but lose a lot of their functions when the greens are not around. Hope is useless if you don't have the will to also act, but in turn hope can give people the will to act. The more hope they have that they can win, the more they will fight to win.

That was the nerdiest comparison I've ever made.

Episode 10: I appreciate a good bad dad joke and that's why I can't approve of "punderstand". It's too much of stretch to flow well. "Ruined" was good though.

I'm less surprised that Scorpia's been chipped and more that she's even alive. She was at the bottom of the ocean when the roof broke and she's a scorpion woman. I don't think water is a very friendly element for her. She's even commented on how good the desert was to her.

I wonder her She-Ra mode is not working for her simply because Adora is exhausted; mentally and physically. I don't think she's ever used the form this continuously before, and she's been doing it without the First Ones' sword that she has experience with. Her new sword and its transformations may be made out of her own energy for all we know. And then there's just the emotional toil of having Catra back in her life while it feels like more and more of the world is being turned against her.

Episode 11: Oh, I'm definitely shipping Hordak and Entrapta.

I think Re:Zero has spoiled me on dark magic. While Micah with his dark magic is a threat, in this show and many others dark magic basically just equates to "spooky, evil, bad stuff" magic that isn't that different from most other kinds of magic other than being either harder to control or more geared towards causing harm. In Re:Zero, dark magic was DARK. It felt unnatural, like a perversion of how their world's magic is supposed to be and that it didn't belong in this reality. Micah's dark magic is basically "I'm attacking you with shadows, oOoOoOo so scary!"

Not really surprised Catra left. She just got Adora back and now she's potentially about to let herself die. Perfuma said it best, letting people in and letting herself be vulnerable is hard. Caring about Adora and watching her die would be a huge blow, so Catra would rather curl back up into her shell and block out Adora again than have to risk taking that hit.

Episode 12: I keep saying it but now having them right next to each other, yeah, Mara's She-Ra outfit is better than Adora's. I don't know, there's just something grander about it. Anyway, on topic, I'm a big fan of superheroes and legacy and all that and I really like Mara's words to Adora. All she did and sacrificed was so that others, especially the next She-Ra, wouldn't have to do the same. It doesn't matter how noble and heroic it is, tragedy is tragedy and anyone who knows that kind of pain doesn't want anyone else to have to go through it.

I'm not surprised by the love confession between Glimmer and Bow. I felt it could go either way with them either hooking up or just staying really good friends, but that in itself is a sign of how good and natural their friendship is. I can easily buy how it would evolve into something more between them. The situation they're in probably helps. When Glimmer was taken they both thought they might never see each other again and that fear and worry probably caused them to reevaluate how they feel about the other. They've been clinging to each other since getting back, as every day could be their last. Something like that is naturally going to push two people together.

Episode 13: So...are there any plans for a season 6? Or a comic continuation like Avatar and Korra got? Because this was a good finale...buuuuuuuuut I feel there are definitely some things that needed a bit more exploration.

This is typically why I like stories with epilogue endings, especially those set some number of years in the future. Little glimpses of what everyone's doing now, allowing the audience to fill in for themselves what happened in-between. There's nothing wrong with this episode but it does just kind of...stop. They beat Prime. Everybody's cheering and happy. Adora suggests they bring magic back to the universe. And...that's it. We don't see anything more. No aftermath, no post-war, nothing. We end on the moment of victory, and while it's not a bad moment it leaves the ending feeling a little incomplete.

It kind of feels like the writers either really had to rush to the ending to make the 13 episode deadline or simply didn't want to address whatever happens with Catra and Hordak now. With the bigger threat of Horde Prime it makes sense why everyone puts aside past issues and works together. But now that the crisis is over, naturally everyone would have to address everything the Horde had done to Etheria for years with Hordak and Catra leading it. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Catra loves Adora, I believe Adora loves her, and I believe Catra wants to be a better person. It's not like I'm saying she needs to be locked up or executed. But she did cause a lot of damage and put Adora especially through hell, and just because Shadow Weaver is the one who screwed her up so bad doesn't mean she doesn't have any responsibility for her own actions. So it just would have been nice to get even a little bit of lip service to show that Catra would be trying to right her wrongs from this point forward, instead of just "Prime's gone, everyone's happy, bye!" At least with Entrapta she seemed to genuinely not understand why what she was doing at the time was wrong and Scorpia, like Adora and Huntara, defected from the Horde to do the right thing despite it being even more part of her upbringing than anyone else. I can't even imagine what happens with Hordak now.

Don't get me wrong, this is far from the worst I've ever seen a redemption handled. I haven't read/watched any of Boruto outside of the movie and Gaiden tie-in but I've read all of Naruto and there is no reason that Orochimaru should just be walking around and casually talking with people after all he's done. Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga built an entire theme park to try an murder Yugi and his friends and they bring it up like twice after that arc. Kylo Ren turning back to the light was one of the potential paths for his character, so that made sense in TROS, but they essentially did "He died heroically and therefore totally redeemed himself for every terrible thing he's ever done."; basically a cop-out. Catra's alive and can at least potentially still own up to her actions and work to redeem herself. And I love Steven Universe, but kind of like with Catra nearly killing everyone (including herself) via the unstable portal, fans have naturally pointed out that the Diamonds enslaved and committed genocide on multiple planets and really faced no consequences for that other than "Stop it". Catra's not at the gold standard of redemption stories, which for me is probably Zuko and Endeavor, but she's far from the bottom. I think the best way to describe it is that Catra had as good, if not better, reasons for being so bad and screwed up as Zuko did, just as good step-up for turning good as Zuko did, but she didn't have nearly as much payoff afterwards to make it feel like a full journey like Zuko did.

But enough about all that. Love the basically goddess She-Ra Adora became. Given the emphasis on healing powers with She-Ra we've had, I'm guessing that's essentially how she destroyed Prime. She purified Hordak and Prime was basically an infection within him. I like when heroes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but I also when there's an implication towards the villain that "Wow. I never stood a chance." She-Ra's power just dwarfs his. Full potential realized by Adora and he was just gone.

Also I don't know how I forgot that Prime could jump into the bodies of his clones but his possession of Hordak got me. I genuinely couldn't think of how he'd survive after Hordak shoved him off the edge (set free by the power of love!).

And even if the ending feels a little incomplete, the episode itself still did well with my emotional investment. I was gripped by during Catra's confession and the tension within the heart.

Season 5 and overall series verdict: I'm very glad I saw this series. Even though its ending falls a little short for me, this was still really good. Seasons 3 was probably my favorite overall but this story had a very good flow to it. It steadily built up bigger each season, with Catra and Hordak being really compelling villains driving the whole thing. Not that Prime was bad. He was a genuine threat and his cult of clones is a good creepy concept. He's just not as good as the other two. I'm sure part of what elevates him up is because I'm thinking of the JL director's cut but Hordak really is just better Steppenwolf. Everything that worked about that character, Hordak is that to an 11.

Given how I've talked about her more than any of the others, Catra is probably my favorite character. Just the damage that girl has been through. I always understood why she was doing what she did, even though there was rarely a moment I'd agree with exactly what she was doing. Again, it's one of the reasons it feels like the series just kind of ended. There's a lot to be seen with Catra's character now, a lot that can be done, and it just feels like a shame to really not show any of it. This isn't a fault of SRPOP itself because so many series, especially animated and anime, are guilty of but it always bugs me when a series ends on two characters hooking. Relationships are interesting, I'd argue more so than the build-up to them, but no writer ever wants to actually explore them after the hook-up. I never cared about Korra and Mako being a couple but I still found their relationship as a couple more interesting and character building than any of the will they/won't they build-up to it. And I actually like the idea of Adora and Catra as a couple. It's a big reason why I'm so happy the Harley Quinn animated series got renewed for a third season, as it otherwise would have just ended on a hook-up between two characters who, like Adora and Catra, love each other but have had a complicated dynamic for a while. I believe Adora and Catra love each other, but they've got a lot of stuff to work out and I want to see that! Catra's got abandonment issues and that in turn caused her to be unhealthily possessive over Adora. Just seeing the two of them try to work through that alone would be fascinating.

Like I suspected early on, Scorpia's my favorite supporting character. Entrapta's a decent 2nd. Took a small dip when it seemed like she was joining the Horde over feeling abandoned by the princesses when they thought she was dead but that picked back up once it was made more clear "Oh, okay, you're not being petty or stupid. You genuinely don't understand." It made her a more interesting character, and I love her and Hordak's relationship.

Least favorite characters...probably Sea Hawk and those three former Horde friends of Adora and Catra. I never hated them but I never cared about what was happening when they were on screen. They fill out the world a bit, they drive the plot, they're not wastes of space, they even get some laughs. There are just so many other characters in the series way more interesting than them.

Biggest surprise for me was definitely Glimmer and Bow. I never thought I'd dislike them but the best friends characters in series like this can kind of go one way or another with how relevant or deep they are. Glimmer especially I was surprised how much I was invested. She really grew a lot as a person throughout the series and I thought the dilemma over the Heart of Etheria was a good one.

Honestly there's a lot more I could talk about but I have only so many words and my thoughts are a jumble right now so I'm going to leave it at that. I will say I really appreciate how supportive you all on this Reddit have been. It's something I hate about some other fandoms I'm in where they basically are so toxic that they make no one else actually want to watch/read the thing they're fans of because they can't help but associate it with them.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o2p6wq/going_in_blind_watching_season_5_for_the_first/

#she ra #she ra spop #random thoughts #reddit repost

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acephysicskarkat · 3 years

Text

Redemption, Forgiveness and She-Ra S5

So just to spite the anon who told me to stop posting my opinions, I’m gonna post another opinion!

This will contain spoilers for SPOP, Avatar: the Last Airbender, The Good Place, and Steven Universe.

So the most common take that I’ve heard about S5 from Catra stans is that it’s a story about redemption and forgiveness and that if I’m in any way critical of it then I’m saying abusers can never redeem themselves.

To which I say: the second part is a strawman argument, and the first part doesn’t help because it’s a bad story about redemption and forgiveness.

Part 1: Redemption

The problem with S5′s stories about redemption is that they are, universally, undercooked. For things that the fanbase had been wanting for months, they’re surprisingly lacking in meaningful impact.

Catra’s is the least bad, because Catra is at least on-screen long enough to tell us that it seems to be sticking, but it’s still not good. It’s rushed, it’s weightless, and it feels like they didn’t even check what she’d done in the past three seasons that she would need to find redemption for.

At no point does she meaningfully confront her actions (which, in case you’ve forgotten, ranged from bringing about the death of Queen Angella (S3E6), to repeated attempts to murder or permanently harm Adora (S1E11, S1E13, S2E5, S3E4-6, S4E3), to bullying Scorpia (present throughout but most obvious in S4E6), to taking part in a war crime (S4E8)), nor does she really confront the jealousy and spite that drove them. Indeed, the episodes that could have been spent showing us her character development are spent showing us that she still has a very unhealthy attitude towards Adora (S5E6) and telling us that she underwent her character development offscreen, while we were distracted by Double Trouble (S5E8).

Hordak’s is even worse, because Catra at least admits she wronged people, even if the focus is put almost entirely on Catra feeling bad about it. Hordak realises, accurately, that being made into a cog in a machine of conquest is bad (S5E13)...but he never makes the leap onscreen to it still being bad when he did it to other people, as he did to Adora and the other Horde kids (S2E7). It treats Hordak’s decision to break free of Horde Prime as if it in and of itself makes him good, overlooking that the life he’s trying to go back to was the one where he ruled over an empire of stolen children.

I don’t even want to get into Shadow Weaver.

AtLA gave a compelling redemption arc to Zuko by having him confront the consequences of his actions. SU gave a compelling redemption arc to Peridot by showing us, in great detail, her evolution from antagonist to ally. SPOP just kinda tells us that characters are good now and expects that to work out okay.

And the really depressing thing is that both these characters actually could have sustained really compelling redemption arcs! I would have loved to see Hordak meaningfully realise onscreen that the universe does not consist of him, Horde Prime, Imp, Entrapta, and a bunch of largely interchangeable pawns for him to treat as he sees fit. I would have loved to see Catra wrestle with and overcome her resentment of Adora, maybe come to understand that being Shadow Weaver’s favourite fucking sucked actually. The show just didn’t bother, and so what we got was on par with a bad fanfic or the backstory for a D&D character.

Part 2: Forgiveness

For my money, one of the best stories about forgiveness in modern media is in a third season episode of The Good Place called “A Fractured Inheritance”.

Explaining it with as few spoilers as possible, protagonist Eleanor Shellstrop discovers that her cartoonishly neglectful mother Donna faked her death and seems to have built a new life where she’s a good stepmother to a child. Eleanor spends most of the episode convinced that her mother is running a scam, but eventually concludes that this does appear to be sticking and gives up her plan to reveal Donna’s secret, cautioning her not to go back to how she used to be. At the end, she opens up to a friend about the trauma she sustained as a result of her upbringing.

SPOP could never.

"A Fractured Inheritance” tells a more compelling story about forgiveness in 15 minutes of screentime than she-Ra S5 managed in four and a half hours because The Good Place cares about Eleanor’s trauma. It’s portrayed as pretty understandable that she has a grudge against her mother, and working through that takes time and sustained proof that Donna has changed. More than that, forgiveness isn’t portrayed as a magical button that instantly solves Eleanor’s issues; just because she’s letting go of her anger towards Donna doesn’t mean that the harm she suffered as a result of Donna’s neglect goes away. Her fear of opening up or being vulnerable, stemming from a childhood of constantly being shat on when she did, is still there, even after reconciling with her mother.

Contrast this to She-Ra S5. The second Catra says she’s sorry, Adora is willing to forgive her and go across the universe to help her (S5E3), even though in their last interaction, back in S4E3, Adora actively tried to kill her for pretty darn compelling reasons (you may remember those reasons from S3E4-6). Adora gets, like, a brief rant in S5E4 where she seems to be confused about this, but there’s never a point where she meaningfully seems to process the trauma she’s suffered as a result of Catra’s treatment of her, which we know has been toxic, controlling and unhealthy since they were kids (S5E3).

More than that, there’s never really a point where any of the people Catra victimised in the first four seasons gets to deal with that. Glimmer seemingly never realises that Catra is why her mother is dead (S3E6), which is especially jarring given that the effects of Angella’s death on Glimmer drove the entire previous season; Entrapta barely remembers that Catra betrayed her and sent her to her presumed death (S5E6); Bow thinks someone who’s done nothing but attempt to hurt his friends for as long as he’s known her is adorable (S5E8); Scorpia forgives her before she even finishes saying sorry (S5E13); and both Frosta decking her in S5E9 and Perfuma’s understandable irritation with the woman who bullied her GF in S5E10 are portrayed almost as jokes, the latter never escalating beyond mild rudeness.

This also extends to Hordak, who, after his tissue-thin face turn in S5E13, gets a baffling montage that tries to portray his picking up an abandoned child and indifferently turning her over to an abusive sorceress (S2E7) as somehow heartwarming and a big bonding moment, and then the notion that Mermista might have some grudges against the guy who burned down her home and displaced her people (S5E7-8) is framed as comic.

I’m not even saying that neither of these characters should never be forgiven by anyone! Just that the forgiveness they get in the show is lacking in dramatic weight, because the actions that are being forgiven don’t feel like they mean anything. Catra has hurt Adora, Glimmer, Entrapta, Scorpia, Mermista and countless unnamed innocents, and it’s all treated like it has the same impact as borrowing Adora’s Xena DVDs and forgetting to give them back. Hordak should be considered Etheria’s greatest monster given the number of people who’ve died as a result of his actions and maybe one person is slightly irritated at the prospect of having to send him a Christmas card this year.

(This is without getting into the fact that Glimmer and Entrapta are expected to deal with the consequences of their actions to some degree, with each getting an episode focused around that (S2E2, S2E4). It’s kind of wild that Glimmer nearly destroying the world because she took a reckless risk in a desperate gamble to try and save the people she cares about from the Horde blitzkrieg, a gambit that she immediately tried to fix when she realised she’d fucked up (S4E10-13) is treated as something that causes a notable rift in her friendships, but Catra nearly destroying the world because she was just that jealous of Adora (S3E3-6) is breezed past with an “I’m sorry.” Entrapta building the robots causes the Alliance to hold grudges; Hordak waging 25 years of warfare is [shrug] Just Horde Clone Things.)

3. Salvaging These Plot Points

Now, as I implied above, the notion that I think these characters are irredeemable is a bullshit strawman, a thought-terminating cliche that Catra stans use to dismiss criticism without processing with it. So how would I go about it?

Catra

I would start by having Catra and Glimmer be in the same escape. Having her attempt to sacrifice herself in S5E3 had some weird thematic issues given her previously established self-destructive streak (S2E5, most of S3). If we have to keep the bad plot point where Adora recovers the friend who loves and cares for her and immediately goes “well, we gotta leave our friends back home to deal with a colonial invasion while we charge across the universe to save my abusive stalker ex who’s never respected my personhood or autonomy”, I’d probably look at the two biggest missed opportunities in the season: S5E6 and S5E8.

S5E6 is terrible, and should just be expunged mercilessly with fire for its baffling endorsement of the sentiment “yes i abused u but now u hate me so i’m the victim really”. Its replacement should probably be focused around Adora genuinely processing the harm she’s sustained as a result of Catra’s treatment of her, probably deciding at the end that she’ll accept Catra’s help but is still understandably suspicious of her given the established mistrust (S1E8) and hostility (S4E3).

S5E8 is easy to fix, though; instead of it mostly being the characters bumbling around a haunted house, I’d make the setting actually do stuff for the characters’ arcs. We already know that First One ruins can bring up memories, so I’d turn it into a reversal of S1E11 where Adora and Catra’s friendship can actually be rebuilt, probably culminating in Catra saving Adora from falling off a cliff as a symbolic rejection of the resentment she would have been struggling with throughout the episode. This is probably where Adora starts to actually believe that Catra has become a better person.

Basically, the goal here is to show the audience that Catra is working to overcome her issues and become a better person, instead of telling us that it happened offscreen.

Hordak

The problem with Hordak’s face turn is that at no point in the show, including after we’re supposed to treat him as Good Now, does he seem to give a shit about anyone not on a list that contains maybe 4-5 names. I’d probably put in some scenes earlier where his experiences seem to be actually changing him for the better: maybe his response to Entrapta asking him to spare Catra isn’t to commute her sentence to a suicide mission, or he feels a sudden sympathy with a captive Etherian after the fall of Salineas, as the shared feelings of loss line up, and orders their release. Basically, the idea is to put in some groundwork so that it actually feels like he might be safe to have around, instead of him betraying his tyrannical overlord because he misses his life where he was, himself, a tyrannical overlord.

I also would not play the idea that people might be a little bit suspicious of a man with a 25-year history of ruthless oppression, colonial violence and unprovoked warmongering as a joke. Just one of those personal quirks.

4. Summary

In conclusion:

S5 is a bad story about redemption because it doesn’t give the characters being redeemed engaging or compelling redemption arcs, favouring a blind rush to the ending, and it’s a bad story about forgiveness because it treats the actions that are being forgiven as though they don’t mean anything, even when episodes or entire seasons have been built on the effects of those actions. It’s not that these ideas are bad in general, that these characters axiomatically couldn’t be redeemed or that forgiveness is problematic; it’s just that the execution is bad.

Anyway, thanks, jackass anon, for inspiring me to set down my thoughts in detail like this!

#s5 salt #spop spoilers #writing thoughts #redemption arcs #forgiveness

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i-just-love-spop · 4 years

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Of babysitting and (potential) kitchen fires [Chapter one]

Chapter two

Arrow loves auntie Catra and the bedtime stories she always tells about her adventures with auntie Adora and Arrow’s parents.

Catra might be enjoying babysitting a little too much.

Meanwhile, Adora is unsure whether or not she would be a good mother.

And Glimmer just really, really needs some sleep.

[Shameless post season five Adora and Catra both want kids but haven’t talked about it yet-fic that was supposed to be a one shot but isn’t anymore. Starring: the best friend squad, two Glow/Glimbow children, Melog, cuddling, a bit of angst and, of course, the best friend squad teasing each other.]

Disclaimer: This was originally posted on my Ao3, EleenaDume, which I would love to source, but tumblr is driving me insane and apparently one of the reasons why my posts might not show up in the tags could be external links, so I’m trying it again without the link. If you want to check if I’m really the same person, I’ve added this account to my list of other accounts on my Ao3-profile.

—

“That day, the most selfless girl in the galaxy learned that it was alright to choose herself for once – that it was the right choice to be selfish sometimes. And that’s how she saved the galaxy. The end.”

Catra clapped her hands together to empathize the ending of the story.

The little girl with the violet hair looked up at her. There was an excited glint in her eyes.

“Start over, I want to hear the story again! Please!”

Catra laughed as she ruffled the girl’s hair.

“Nice try, sweetie, but the time has come for little Arrow to go to sleep, because Queen Sparkles will show up soon and throw me out of your room if you don’t.”

Arrow pouted.

“Come on, auntie Catra. Just one more time. Auntie Adora can keep mom distracted in the meantime.”

The adult woman stroked the child’s head again and giggled softly. Damn, she really liked this kid.

“As much as I like the way you think, Glitter, your mom will end me if I keep you awake any longer. And I think she’s pert near issuing a decree about how much I get to talk about Adora here before I must be forcefully removed from the building at all costs,” She joked.

The child laughed.

“But mommy and dad are just as bad!”

“You’re the cheekiest girl in the entire universe. I’m so proud of you.” Catra hugged her gently. “Come on, little one. Time to sleep. I’ll tell you more stories tomorrow.”

Arrow squeaked happily, snuggled up to her aunt and caved.

“Okay, fine. But only if you promise.”

The adult smiled softly. Arrow was just about her favorite person in the entire universe – except for Adora, of course.

The remaining members of the best friend squad were pretty close behind, though.

“Of course. I promise, Glitter.”

She gently tucked the girl in the cupcake pajamas into bed.

“Wanna sleep lights on or lights off today?”

Glimmer and Adora watched Catra from the doorframe as she tugged Arrow in and then started singing her to sleep.

Adora was pretty close to melting into a puddle right then and there. Instead, she almost started crying and rubbed her wedding band nervously, all the universe’s love in her eyes in that very moment.

The scene alone was enough to turn her head all over again, and that wasn’t even including the fact that Catra’s singing was down right enchanting, and she would have happily listened to nothing but that for the rest of her life.

“Adora? ... Adora?” Her best friend gave her a gentle nudge. “Hey, Brightmoon to She-Ra, you in there?”

The blonde jerked extremely startled.

She’d been in a completely different world for the last couple of minutes.

“Yeah, uh, I was just-”

“Zoning out at Catra again. I know.” Adora went beet red. Glimmer winked at her and laughed softly. Despite her visible exhaustion, she still insisted on teasing her best friend. “I’m still surprised how good she is with kids. Arrow loves her to the stars and back.”

“Yeah, I know...”

She-Ra was still way too mesmerized by the scene to take her eyes off her wife and her niece.

“Have you two thought about it yet? You know, the... adoption thing we talked about?”

Well, that jerked the warrior princess back into reality, alright.

She turned away from Catra and Arrow, instead facing the wall across from the child’s room.

“I- we- uh-” she stammered. “I... don’t know. I think I’d be a terrible mom.”

Glimmer shook her head and looked at her best friend sternly.

“Why would you think that? That’s complete nonsense.”

“Well, I’m kind of a complete mess, and extremely chaotic and clumsy and- I tried cooking something recently, and then Catra hugged me from behind while I was doing it, and then my brain short-circuited and I almost burnt down the kitchen because I still can’t believe I’m married to Catra and it’s been ten years-” She was once again talking in that very Adora way where Glimmer wasn’t sure if she even took a single breath while sentence after sentence came out of her mouth in such a speed that it was hard to understand everything. “-and, I mean, I can’t take care of a child! I can barely take care of myself, and-”

Her best friend put her hands on the shoulders of the blonde.

“Adora. Breathe.”

“...right. That... That’s a... thing I should be doing.” She listened, took a couple of long-drawn-out breaths... and slowly, she started calming down again. “I’m sorry. It’s just... I don’t know if I would be a good mother.”

Glimmer smiled at her and pinched her cheek.

“Of course you would be a good mom. I mean, you’re not Catra, but you have watched Arrow before, and you were pretty good at it. And kids love you.”

Adora let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, maybe, but... I don’t know.”

“Hey, nobody’s forcing you to do anything, alright?” Glimmer hugged her. “If that’s not something you want, that’s perfectly fine. Kids aren’t for everyone, and you two are great together on your own. You don’t need kids to be happy.”

Adora shook her head.

“Yeah, no, I know, that... that’s not it. I... I actually think we would both like to have one, but.., the only mother figure we had back at the horde was Shadow Weaver, and I think we’re both afraid we could end up being the kind of parent she was. Catra more so than me.”

Glimmer stopped short.

That though alone seemed completely insane to her.

Adora was just about the nicest, kindest person she had ever met – except for maybe Bow –, while Shadow Weaver was most definitely cruelest, most manipulative asshole she could think of.

And while Catra’s story was... more complicated on that behalf, she still couldn’t imagine her being the kind of mother Shadow Weaver had been. Catra had learned from her mistakes, had overcome her fears and weaknesses and had become a better person along the way.

Shadow Weaver had never learned, never changed, and while her last moments had been a sacrifice, it had been one of cowardice more than one of courage.

A dead person didn’t have to face the mistakes she made. Didn’t have to deal with the people they hurt – the hate in their eyes and the words of anger, sadness and spite that would get thrown at them otherwise.

Catra had faced all that. She’d worked to complete exhaustion to rebuild the cities she’d helped destroy, and she’d went to the end of the galaxy and back to prove that she’d truly changed.

Despite that, some people hadn’t forgiven her, and they never would.

Some people still thought Adora deserved better, and that Catra was treating her badly and should be banished from the planet for good for everything she’d done.

That wasn’t happening... and Catra had learned to live with and accept what people thought of her. She knew she’d hurt others. And as much as she would have liked to turn back time to right her wrongs... she couldn’t.

What others thought of her wasn’t her choice to make. If she had hurt people too much for them to ever give her another chance, that was valid, and she accepted it.

It wasn’t her choice to make.

That made her a much bigger person than Shadow Weaver had ever been.

“Are you serious? Neither of you is anything like her, and you never will be. The way Catra treats Arrow, how she tucks her into bed and sings her to sleep... that’s something my mom used to do when I was little.” For a moment, there was a glint of sad melancholy in her eyes. “Mom would have loved Arrow. And Catra would have driven her absolutely bonkers... but if things hadn’t happened the way they did... I think she would have liked her too.”

Adora pulled her best friend into a hug.

“I...” She started, but Glimmer shook her head and interrupted he.

“Shadow Weaver wasn’t like this at all, was she?”

That was a pretty clear signal.

She didn’t want to talk or think about this any longer. At least not right now.

Adora could accept that and just continued on with the conversation as if nothing had happened.

That was part of their silent agreement when it came to talking about Angella.

“No, she wouldn’t have. Shadow Weaver was never the singing type.” She raised her hands and wagged her fingers in a silly imitation of a spell caster, hoping that would lift the mood again – at least a little. “She was more like ‘uuuuuh, I’m so evil and mean, and if you don’t go to sleep then the weeping princess will show up and murder you, or maybe I will, if you annoy me too much!’...”

She stuck out her tongue.

Glimmer giggled, and Adora joined in.

She could laugh about it today... at least a little.

That had been different for a long time.

“Hey Adora.” The two of them spun around. Apparently Arrow had fallen asleep by now, because Catra was now standing right next to them, the door closed behind her so they could speak loudly without waking the child up again. She looked at her wife all lovey-dovey for a moments then turned to Glimmer, grinned and bowed playfully. “Queen Sparkles, I humbly report your daughter has been put to bed and is asleep now.”

That earned her a gentle nudge against the shoulder from said queen, who rolled her eyes as she laughed.

“Why are you like this?”

Catra gave her a cheeky grin and winked at her.

“What can I say, it’s part of my charm.”

She then put an arm around her wife gently, who had finally stopped zoning out enough to properly greet her.

“Hey Kitty.”

Catra rolled her eyes.

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

Adora pulled her close and looked at her smugly.

“You love it when I call you that.”

“I do not.”

Their faces were now merely inches away from each other.

Truth be told, Catra had given up on ever getting rid of the nickname when Adora had used it for the first time several years ago.

By now, she was sure just about all of Etheria knew about the dumb nickname – that maybe, just maybe, did send a nice feeling of comfortable warmth through her body when Adora said it.

The annoyed facade she put up was nothing more than that – just part of their playful flirting.

Their kiss was unsatisfyingly short.

Adora broke away almost immediately, grimacing. She wiped her mouth.

“...why do you taste like glitter?”

Catra, who had been kind of irritated and hurt until now, started cackling.

“So I might have given the kid a goodnight kiss to the forehead when I tucked her in, sue me.” She turned to Glimmer. “Sparkles’ husband kisses her all the time – I wonder how he does it.”

Her friend and her wife joined in the laughing really soon.

“I’ll have to thank my daughter for finding the absolutely only method I can think of that can keep you two from constantly making out in front of me,” Glimmer chuckled, smiling to herself.

Those two were almost disgustingly cute.

Almost.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but there’s nothing in the entire universe powerful enough to keep our hands off each other for long,” Adora commented truthfully.

The Horde, a war, a collapsing reality and an army consisting of robots and the clones of an insane maniac hadn’t stopped them. Keeping them away from each other for long was a task that would have required something a lot more complicated than a little glitter.

She put her arm around her wife’s waist and kissed her cheek.

Glimmer had a hard time keeping herself from commenting the purring that ensued as the smile on her lips grew wider.

She just looked at the two of them silently for a while until she spoke up again.

“Oh, and Catra... thanks for babysitting. I really appreciate it a lot.”

Spending time with them was nice... but she also started to feel her exhaustion more with every passing minute and wanted nothing more than to just collapse into her bed and sleep for a small eternity... or at least for approximately an hour before she would be woken up again.

The thought alone made her head spin.

But she was really, really thankful.

Catra had been immensely helpful when it came to watching Arrow, especially during these past few weeks.

“Hey, you know I love the kid. Anytime.” The brunette smiled. “I forgot to ask... how was your meeting?”

“Please don’t ask.” The Queen of Brightmoon grimaced and shuddered slightly. “It dragged on forever, and I was so tired that I feel like I missed out on half of what was being said.”

Adora shrugged.

“She fell asleep halfway through the meeting. We voted on whether or not we should let her sleep. It was the only unanimous decision of the day.”

Catra chuckled.

“Seems like you might have to be put to bed just like your daughter, huh, your majesty?” She joked.

Glimmer rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Believe me, I wish it was that easy. Angie is an absolute nightmare. I mean, I love her, and I would do anything for her... but I swear, neither me nor Bow has slept more than two hours at a time in the last three weeks. The kid has incredible lungs. And Adora‘s sleep-wake rhythm.”

The pink-haired woman groaned.

Catra nudged her wife gently.

“We’re really missing out, huh?”

At least for the first few seconds, Adora was certain her wife was kidding... but there was something in her voice...

„Speaking of missing out... what would you say if we took the little one for tonight?“ Adora said as if out of the blue. You two really need sleep and some time to yourselves, and...” She looked at her best friend sincerely, then glanced towards Catra in a meaningful way. “What do you think, Glimmer?”

“...Adora, are you sure?”

She-Ra nodded energetically.

“Of course. And even know how to warm up milk without burning the kitchen down by now... I think.”

She gave them a pretty unconvincing smile and an even less convincing thumbs up.

Catra looked at her wife, eyebrow raised.

“Sweetheart, do all of us a favor and just wake me up, alright? I’m not in the mood for another three o’clock-shower by Mermista.”

“...Or I’ll just wake Catra,” Adora assured her, giving an affirmative nod and smiling at Glimmer. “Come on...”

“Okay. Alright. But if something goes wrong or you need anything or-”

Adora put a hand on her shoulder and raised an eyebrow.

“Now you’re the one who needs to remember how to breathe.”

Glimmer closed her eyes and nodded as she calmed down. Sometimes she really worried too much – especially when it came to her children.

She understood her mother much better these days.

“We’ll manage, Sparkles. Don’t overthink it so much. You really need sleep, damn it.”

Catra nudged her gently.

Glimmer smiled softly as she flung her arms around her two best friends.

“You two are such disasters. I love you so much...”

“Awwww. We love you, too.”

Adora was her usual, hug-loving self.

Catra was still a little tense when being touched by anyone but Adora, but it had been a long time since she’d last flinched back, and she was able to enjoy the gentle gesture of affection much more nowadays.

“Come on, Sparkles. We can go save your husband, and you two can get a good night’s sleep for once, how does that sound?”

“Alright. I’m in.” The Queen of Brightmoon smiled softly at her two best friends. “And – potential kitchen fires aside –, I’m sure you’ll do great.”

A/N: Thank you for reading, feedback would be appreciated a lot!

The second chapter will be much more heavy on Glimbow content.

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johannas-motivational-insults · 5 years

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Glimmer’s Upcoming Villain Arc

So, I’m pretty sure Glimmer’s going to become one of the villains at some point in the final two arcs of SPOP. Not a Horde-aligned villain, obviously, but I think she’s going to have a villain arc and may even end up fighting against Adora. Sound crazy? Well, there’s actually precedent for all this in the Buffyverse, with the Dark Willow story arc. I will get more into those parallels below.

First, though, let’s look at Glimmer and her situation in isolation.

Glimmer is currently in a vulnerable position. She’s grieving the loss of her only remaining parent (so far as she knows) and she’s now going to be saddled with the responsibilities of ruling Bright Moon, all while lacking a parental/mentor figure to guide her. And who do we know who loves to guide and manipulate young people with magical powers? Shadow Weaver.

Some people saw Shadow Weaver allying with the Rebellion as the beginning of a redemption arc. However, it actually makes a hell of a lot more sense for the writers to have put her there to gain influence over Glimmer and kickstart her villain arc, starting with their unexpected connection in season 3. Though Glimmer clearly hadn’t forgiven Shadow Weaver for torturing her in season 1 or for emotionally abusing Adora throughout her childhood, she decided the Rebellion needed this evil woman’s help. It was a means to an end. But now that that mission to save Adora and disable the portal was a success, she probably won’t hesitate to ask for her help again.

Not only did Shadow Weaver gain a bit of Glimmer’s trust, Glimmer loved the boost in power she got from Shadow Weaver. She’s complained several times about how she thinks her powers aren’t that useful or strong, but Shadow Weaver fed her ego and gave her a chance to increase her powers. When she successfully teleported the Princess Alliance into the Fright Zone, she was ecstatic.

“We did it! I did it! That was amazing!”

Simply put, Glimmer is power hungry. Just look at her eyes when Shadow Weaver is talking about her potential to be a great sorcerer like her father.

This scene and the following scene in the tower gave me the creeps so bad, you could just feel Glimmer being pulled to the dark side by the promise of power. And now post-season 3, not only will she be craving that feeling of power again, there’s an inciting incident prompting her to use it.

With her mom trapped in an empty dimension forever, which is essentially hell (especially for an immortal person ffs), Glimmer will probably do everything she can to get her out. I’m guessing she’ll go to her Aunt Casta for help, but Casta will say there’s nothing to be done (at least not without resorting to dark magic), so Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver out of desperation. Even if Shadow Weaver could come up with a way to bring Angella back, she’ll say she can’t, because she can use Glimmer’s grief for her own ends.

Shadow Weaver’s motive for defecting to the Rebellion was to take down Hordak and Catra, and at this point she could easily convince Glimmer to help her get revenge on Catra. In fact, there’s a chance Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver herself looking to team up and get this revenge, though it’s more likely Shadow Weaver will plant the seed and manipulate her into thinking it was her own idea.

Inciting incidents aside, Glimmer has always been someone who had the potential to break bad. Like Catra, she’s power hungry and eager to prove herself, brash and impulsive, and quick to resort to violence. She’s easily blinded by emotion and can be quite heartless, both of which were illustrated in 1x01-02 by how she treated Adora because of what the Horde had done to her father.

She’s also morally gray, willing to go to extremes to achieve an outcome that she considers to be good or just. Her decision to free Shadow Weaver and use her to access the Fright Zone is a great example. Another notable instance was when she had Catra as a hostage in 2x02 and threatened to kill her to counter Catra’s threat against Entrapta. She was eventually talked down by Bow, but only while complaining about how having to take the moral high ground isn’t fair. She was clearly frustrated that entire episode by the constraints of being one of the good guys, and it culminated here.

Fighting for the rebellion, Glimmer is a force for good. But if she decides to chase her own agenda, her powers and personality could easily be used for evil. Especially when there’s someone there expertly guiding her down that slippery slope.

Now, if the plot does indeed go this way, it will put Adora in a rather unfortunate position. If it comes down to a situation where Shadow Weaver and Glimmer have an opportunity to kill Catra, Adora will have to intervene on Catra’s behalf, for several reasons. 1) Catra is the most important person in her life, as we all know. 2) She cares for Glimmer’s soul. She knows that if Glimmer murders Catra it will haunt her and change her, and she doesn’t want that for her friend. 3) She feels the need to protect the helpless. Catra will probably be all alone in the world at this point, having pushed all her friends and allies away. So not only will she not have allies to fight with her, she’ll be in a poor state mentally, maybe even welcoming death. Even if she was in good shape, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Glimmer and Shadow Weaver’s combined magical powers. And since Adora can’t stand watching defenseless people get hurt, this will force her to step in and protect Catra despite all the negative feelings she has for her right now.

There are two people I could see pulling Glimmer out of this spiral, bringing her back to the light: Bow or Micah. Adora isn’t the best at sympathizing with someone’s dark impulses while fighting tham, as we’ve seen multiple times with Catra. Her job is to protect the world, and she will prioritize that over everything else, including her best friend (don’t we know it?). So that leaves Bow to talk Glimmer down, either by appealing to her morals (somewhat likely, but wouldn’t work at that point) or by reminding her of her innate good side, of the person she is deep down and the love he feels for her. The other way this could go down is Micah escaping from wherever he is trapped (he’s alive, yo) and convincing Glimmer to stand down with a dose of parental love and wisdom (and a big hug).

There are so many parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this potential situation, and here’s where we get into the Willow comparisons. SPOILERS for BtVS under the cut!

The comparison between Catra and the rogue slayer Faith has been made many times before, along with the relationships these two characters have with the respective heroes of their shows. But if Catradora is Fuffy, that leaves Glimmer in the Willow role. And there are actually a lot of similarities between the two characters, both being fiercely protective but tempermental magical sidekicks to the hero (who hate being called sidekicks, btw). Both have had trouble making friends in the past, and both have a dude they were best friends with for years before the hero came along and turned them into an inseperable trio.

And now, there are notable and worrisome plot parallels between Glimmer and Willow in seasons 5 and 6 of BtVS.

Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world at the end of season 5, and the “Scooby Gang” believes she was sucked into hell in the process, so they decide to try to bring her back via magic. There is some dissent among the ranks, but ultimately they defer to Willow (who leads in Buffy’s absence like Glimmer will be leading the Rebellion in Angella’s absence), and Willow is not afraid of dark magic. In fact, we already saw her use it in season 5 against Glory (that season’s big bad) after Glory temporarily stole the sanity of Willow’s girlfriend, Tara.

Willow’s attack on Glory was emotionally motivated - she went off on her own after the others thought they had talked her down, thinking an attack was unwise. It was clearly motivated by revenge rather than strategy, which was made exceptionally clear by what she said to Glory.

(This scene actually reminds me a bit of the aforementioned incident with Catra in 2x02, only more extreme. The situations were obviously different, but the vengeful overtones and the mages’ frustration with allies trying to constrain their powers were similar. Both of them were struggling with impulsiveness, morality, and vengeful desires.)

Willow is ultimately successful in bringing Buffy back, though it turns out to not be entirely a good thing. If Glimmer fails to bring Angella back, as I theorized above, she could easily skip ahead to the end of Willow’s season 6 arc, the next time Willow suffers a great loss.

(The middle of Willow’s season 6 arc is her getting addicted to magic and using it in morally dubious ways on Tara and her other friends, which causes Tara to leave her until after she stops using magic and recovers from the addiction. SPOP’s writers could include something like this, but I don’t think they will, for time’s sake. More likely they will just continue to show Glimmer being tempted and corrupted by power as she gets closer to Shadow Weaver, rather than using her powers on her friends.)

The end of Willow’s season 6 arc starts with the notorious shooting death of Tara Maclay. When Tara is hit by a stray bullet and dies in Willow’s arms, Willow attempts to use magic to bring her back, but is denied. This sends her into a spiral of rage and grief, and she spends the next two episodes attempting to kill the shooter and his hapless allies. She catches up to Warren and flays him alive, but the others escape with Buffy’s help. (In the finale she tries to end the world because she believes it is for the best, as life is too full of pain. SPOP definitely won’t pull this same plot point twice, but the revenge quest up to that point is absolutely something that would work for Glimmer.)

Speaking of Buffy stepping in, let’s look at parallels to the situation Adora will find herself in, if my theory is correct.

Buffy tries to dissuade Willow from murdering Warren because she believes it’s wrong and she doesn’t want Willow to have to live with it after. When she finds Warren’s body she decides Willow has gone too far and stands against her when she tries to go after Warren’s allies. Willow is tired of Buffy’s lectures on morality, of living by the good guys’ rules. She wants revenge, and Buffy is standing in her way. She’s also tired of being treated like a sidekick and is eager to show Buffy who is more powerful. They end up having an epic fight scene before she decides to end the world.

With the way she gives in to her dark impulses, fights against Buffy and their friends, and tries to end the world, Dark Willow actually ends up being the big bad of season 6. Her best friend Xander is the one who ends up saving the world - not by fighting her, but by blocking her magic with his body, reminding her of who she has been all these years, and telling her repetitively that he loves her. He literally saves her (and the world) with the power of love and friendship, a recurring phrase on SPOP.

The perfect parallel here would be Bow stepping in and reminding Glimmer of the goodness inside her. Perhaps he’d face off with her while Adora is fending off Shadow Weaver. But yeah, for the reasons I outlined above, Bow would be the perfect candidate to call Glimmer back from the brink of becoming a murderer. He’s known her longer than Adora and is more empathetic. Xander is often referred to as “the heart” of the Scooby Gang, the one who lacks magical powers but makes up for it with his empathy, courage, and enthusiasm. Bow fills that same role in the Best Friend Squad and Princess Alliance, and he wears a literal heart on his chest. (Yes, Xander is problematic in some ways but damn it that’s so off-topic and I’m not getting into it.)

I don’t think Glimmer will actually succeed in her quest for vengeance, or at least it won’t culminate in Catra’s murder. SPOP deals with some dark themes but it's meant for a younger audience than BtVS, plus Noelle surely knows better than to kill a fan fave wlw. But Glimmer will probably have an opportunity to kill Catra and be dissuaded at the last second, then have to embark on a redemption arc of her own.

Again, this is all just a crazy theory, but the idea of Glimmer going dark is both scary and exciting. She’s most interesting as a character when she’s struggling with her darker urges, and I think SPOP has been hinting at and slowly setting this up over the first two arcs. Now with an inciting incident at play, she could easily give in to those urges in the wake of her grief, letting her vengeful streak bubble to the surface like it did for Willow. I can’t wait to see where the story takes her in arc 3.

#spop #she ra #she-ra #meta #theories #glimmer #dark glimmer #glimmer and shadow weaver #best friend squad #glimbo #shadow weaver #catra #bow #adora #btvs #parallels #dark willow #willow rosenberg

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takerfoxx · 4 years

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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Season 5, Episode 13, “The Heart, Part 2,” First Impressions!

I am going to miss this show, I really am.

Well. Here we are. The final episode of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, an almost three decade later reboot of a show I’ve never seen, which in turn was a spin-off of a show I’ve never seen, and yet somehow became one of my favorite shows of all time.

Now, when this show was first announced, there was a lot of pushback. You had the usual murder’s row of so-called anti-SJW troglodytes who like to swoop in on anything that looks like it wasn’t designed with straight white guys in mind (and speaking as a straight white guy, these guys are just. So. Tiresome!), as well as fans of the original who didn’t care for the new character designs, direction, or lack of connection to Masters of the Universe. Which, okay, I get it, and to be honest the little to no He-Man business still strikes me as weird, but come on guys. It’s been almost thirty years! Times have changed, audiences have changed, and the targeted audience of kids’ shows today are very different from what they were in the eighties.

But despite all that nontroversy, She-Ra rose above and established itself as a genuinely great show in it’s own right, becoming both a critical and commercial success. Like, okay, it wasn’t Avatar the Last Airbender or Steven Universe-level big, but it definitely established a real niche for itself and gathered a sizeable fanbase. The excellent writing, incredibly on-point comedic timing, superb voice acting, casual diversity, oodles of complex and likeable characters, tight-plotting, mature handling of difficult topics, and immaculate direction made it out to be an amazing children’s show from a decade that has had no shortage of amazing children’s shows, and expectations were insane for the final season, with the climatic final episode being under incredible scrutiny.

I mean, it makes sense, right? For once, given the huge LGBTQ fanbase the show has, and given how many times the LGBTQ community have been burned at the last second, there is little wonder that they would be wary. And while some shows like the aforementioned Avatar the Last Airbender and Breaking Bad have remained of high quality throughout its run and delivered with an excellent finale (or so I’m told, still working my way through), others like Voltron Legendary Defender and Game of Thrones have become notorious for shitting the bed in their latter halves, and other shows like Steven Universe have had more mixed receptions. So how would She-Ra turn out? Would it end up flopping at the end, or would it stick the landing and enter the pantheon of shows that actually completed their entire story arcs and are fondly remembered?

Yes. Yes, it did.

The final season was spectacular. It started off all right, but from the third episode on immediately turned into pure brilliance, one that seemed to constantly top itself with wonderful character development, emotional payoffs, scenes of gripping tension, ballsy writing, and fantastic action. And any finale that makes me cry gets a thumb’s up from me.

Now, obviously I have a lot of gushing to do, but before it do, I should point out that I don’t think the finale is 100% perfect. There are things that kind of bugged me, and a few others that I felt really could have done better. Of course none of them were deal breakers, only little flaws that I feel could have stood to either have had more focus or different execution. And I might as well get the negative things out of the way.

And for me, the biggest problem is Shadow Weaver’s exit.

And to be clear, I don’t have a problem whatsoever with Shadow Weaver dying. I wanted her to die. I’m glad she died. Nor do I have a problem for her dying to save the two girls she’s spent two decades abusing. And nor do I have a problem with them mourning her death, given that they never actually forgave her, and it only made sense that they would have complicated feelings toward her. All of those are fine!

What I have a problem with is how that moment was framed and directed. It was framed like a heroic sacrifice, from the dramatic final stand moment to Shadow Weaver being suddenly acting selfless to her telling Catra how proud she was of her and finally showing her face.

Everything about that moment was exceptionally well done, yes, but the problem I have is that it doesn’t feel earned. That’s the sort of end you give a morally complex character that has been struggling with their negative qualities throughout a long character arc. And I’m sorry, but while Shadow Weaver is a pretty great and complicated character in her own right, she as never even tried to redeem herself until that moment. With Catra, we still saw how much her actions haunted and tormented her, even when she was at her worst. We saw her wrestling with her ingrained toxic behaviors and her conscience, so that when she finally makes the decision to do something right and, as far as she knew, sacrificed her life to rescue Glimmer and save Adora, it felt all kinds of earned!

But even after defecting to the Princess Rebellion, Shadow Weaver showed no signs of wanting to change. She showed no signs of regretting her mistreatment of Adora and Catra, and still continued to demean, undercut, and gaslight them whenever she was with them, and whenever she was called out on it, she would just brush it off and/or roll her eyes. Even when she was “helping” and “praising” her golden child Adora, she still continued to try to twist her head and mold her into what she wanted Adora would be. And her treatment of Catra didn’t change at all.

So I’m sorry, but that moment just didn’t work for me. Yes, I know Noelle has said that her sacrifice was still selfishly motivated, and I believe it, but it still felt off, especially with her finally telling Catra that she was proud of her, when she was AGAIN demeaning her earlier in that same episode! It carries the unintentional implication that Catra needed Shadow Weaver’s validation in order to move on. I honestly would have preferred that she never got it but realized that she didn’t need it to begin with. And that “You’re welcome,” which is incredibly condescending, was framed as a badass final line. There’s a disconnect between her character arc and its payoff that feels off. I wish something had been handled differently.

The second issue I had was just how rushed a lot of the character payoffs felt at the end. Yes, I know Noelle said that she doesn’t want to do an epilogue and would like us to decide for ourselves how things turned out, and that’s fine. But one day later wouldn’t hurt. Wrong Hordak was shown a couple times cowering next to Swift Wind in group shots and then straight up disappeared. And given their complicated history together, Scorpia and Catra deserved so much more than just a hi and a hug. Chipped Micah was given more time to harm and demean Glimmer than real Micah was given to love her. The Entrapdak thing got more focus and despite what I said about Hordak needing to either die or lose his memories, I’m not too upset that he didn’t do either, but instead simply broke free and got a happy ending, and Mermista’s line of, “So, are we like okay with this?” was great, but it feels like there should have been more. And I know they never had their own character arc and did all they needed to do last season, but if you’re going to bring Double Trouble back, then give us more than just one episode and a two-second cameo at the end.

Like, just give us some kind of montage of the rebuilding stage. Show us Wrong Hordak leading his scared and confused brothers in becoming individuals. Have him meet the real Hordak and show us how they would respond to one another! Give us a proper Catra/Scorpia reconciliation! Do more with Double Trouble or don’t bring them back at all. Hell, pair them up with Wrong Hordak partway through the season so they could bounce off each other, because that would be comedy GOLD! And while I’m glad that we at least got to see Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio (and they adopted Imp!), it sucks that that was their only scene this season, and it didn’t even have any lines. I’m not so upset about Huntara, because I know her voice actress is hard to get ahold of, so I’m okay with her just getting a wordless scene, but the others kind of bug.

I understand that time was a factor, but surely something could have been done.

All right, now I got all those out my system, let the gushing BEGIN!

Catra and Adora. Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Now, I know I said that Catra needs to leave in order for her redemption to work, but even though she didn’t and got pretty much forgiven and accepted by everyone she hurt, I’m still very happy with how her redemption arc went down. Because she made the switch early in the season, showed genuine regret for what she did, made real attempts to apologize to those she hurt without expecting forgiveness, was shown wrestling with her bad traits, sometimes falling back into them, sometimes almost succumbing to bad habits, but was also shown finally making the right decisions and rising above them. She was the best-written character in the show with the most complex character arc, and they fucking NAILED the landing.

And that is because of her love of Adora.

Catra and Adora, two white-hot messes of weirdly compatible issues. Catra is so afraid of abandonment that she instinctively pushes those she loves away or runs away herself rather than let them leave her, and Adora only knows how to place others before herself, to be selfless to a fault, take all the blame for everything, and not let herself be the one who’s loved and protected. The two needed each other in order to overcome their issues, to put aside the damage Shadow Weaver instilled in them.

And they finally did.

Catra came back for Adora. She stayed by her side, refused to leave, and refused to let Adora give up. And Adora rose above her feelings of failure, allowed herself to be loved by another, and became whole.

And then we got it. We finally got the moment we’ve all been waiting for, all been praying for, all wanted so goddamned desperately.

We got the Big Goddamn Kiss.

The love each other. They’re lovers. They’re soulmates. After everything, how could they be anything else? It’s pure, 100% romantic love, a full, no ambiguity friends-to-rivals-to-enemies-to-allies-to-lovers storyline. Not subtext, no reading between the lines. It’s real, it’s canon, it’s between the two main leaders, and it happened right on the screen and saved the goddamned world.

Catra finally reached out to someone and showed love, and Adora finally allowed herself to be brought up and loved. And it’s that love that overcame Horde Prime’s virus and destroyed the Heart of Etheria. It’s that love that freed the magic, released She-Ra, and allowed her to vanquish Horde Prime once and for all.

And hey, two girls kissing, turning into a rainbow, and annihilating the influence of a controlling religious cult and the symbol of exploitative colonizers? Hmmm, subtle!

I love it.

Look, after everyone talking about how much the finale made them cry, and after already sobbing my eyes out when Angella sacrificed herself in season 3, I was worried that I wouldn’t feel the same, that everything had already been spoiled for me so it wouldn’t have the same emotional impact. Hell, the kiss itself had been spoiled for me! So if I knew it was coming, how could it affect me like it did others.

I was wrong. I was so wrong. When Catra screamed at Adora that she loved her and always had, the tears came gushing out. And when they finally did kiss, it made me happier than I had been for a long time. It was such a beautiful moment, and it was so wonderful to see all the magic unleashed, turning Etheria back into the paradise it was meant to be, and the Spire into a giant floating sprig of broccoli!

The Horde was finally defeat, and Horde Prime ripped out of his Wi-Fi network and destroyed once and for all. He will not rise again. His corrupted vision of purity is finally eradicated once and for all, and the galaxy is free again.

It was wonderful.

Other moments I want to highlight! Beginning with Bow!

Oh Bow. I haven’t talked as much about you as I did at the start of the show, but you really are wonderful. After similar unpowered male goofball sidekicks like Xander and Sokka being big balls of toxic masculinity and ingrained misogyny caused by insecurities that they had to overcome, we get an unpowered male goofball sidekick who is a shining example of positive masculinity, someone who knows who he is and is comfortable with it, someone who more than holds his own in battle, constantly makes himself useful, and stands proud with his superpowered friends. And even then, he still feels like real person, one that gets frustrated, feels down, and gets angry at both himself and his friends, but still continues on, because he’s a soldier and that’s what he does.

So it was wonderful that he got the Rise Up and Fight speech, because he deserved it, and oh it felt so good, seeing all those instances of people throwing off Horde Prime’s control while his words were playing. Bow really is wonderful.

And Hordak! Look, I know what I said about wanting more from his ending, but my God, that moment when he threw off Horde Prime’s control and shot Horde Prime in the back to save Entrapta and reclaim his identity was so! Fucking! Cool! I was cheering in my car when that happened! So good!

And hey, give it up for Glimmer for not listening to Chipped Micah and refusing to back down. She overcame a brilliant sorcerer wielding dark magic through the power of sheer stubbornness! Chef kiss, beautiful!

Though I really do think she got most of her stubbornness from her mom. Miss yah, Angie.

And Scorpia and Perfuma? Why, I think I like that quite a lot! Why yes, give Perfuma a big, strong girlfriend with a huge heart! Give Scorpia tiny, cute hippie girlfriend who will take no shit from anyone. Yes, I like this very much.

So...yeah. This really was wonderful. The world is saved, the Best Friend Squad is about to go on a space romp, and it feels good. And from there? Well, Noelle told us to come with that ourselves, so yeah, I’m sure Etheria was able to fully rebuild following the Horde’s destruction. I’m sure that Wrong Hordak became some kind of benevolent leader to his lost brothers and helped them come to grips with their individuality. I’m sure that Scorpia rebuilt the Scorpion Kingdom from the Fright Zone’s ruins and made it a haven to the lost Horde soldiers. I’m sure that Sea Hawk and Mermista burned down a boat together. I’m sure that Glimmer and Bow were married and became king and queen of Brightmoon and had a long and loving reign with lots of babies. I’m sure that Entrapta was given all the discarded Horde and First Ones tech to crack and find good uses for and remained as happy as a clam, especially considering the Hordak harem she’s built. I’m sure that Adora and Catra continued to build each other up, helped and supported one another to keep themselves from falling into bad habits, and Melog was always there as a faithful therapy magi-cat. I’m sure that Perfuma helped Catra along with meditative exercises and Catra never had the heart to tell her that she was just napping. I’m sure that Frosta grew up to be a strong and powerful queen who also founded her own iceball league. I’m sure that everyone started going to Netossa and Spinnerella’s game nights and just decided to put up with Netossa when she got like...that, because at that point she deserved to. I’m sure that Swift Wind finally did emancipate the horses and taught them to form their own weird society, but still made time to visit Madam Razz. I’m sure that Kyle and Rogelio became proud adopted fathers of little Imp, and one day while chilling at the local pub, Lonnie caught the eye of a big, strong purple woman.

I’m sure they were all very happy from there on.

I am going to miss this show. It was a wonderful experience, one that’s given me so much. It made me laugh,it made me cry, it made me cheer, it made me shiver, it made me bite my nails, but most of all, it made me happy.

So thank you Noelle and Molly. Thank you Chuck and Mary Elizabeth. Thank you Sunna and Aaliyah. Thank you Aimee, AJ, Karen, Marcus, Keston, Reshma, Lorraine, Christine, Adam, Genesis, Vella, Merit, Gina, and Jordan. Thank you to all the writers, animators, and directors. Thank you to everyone who worked on this show. Thank you all.

And a very special thank you to @smxmuffinpeddling for filling my dash with She-Ra content, which convinced me to check this show out in the first place!

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hellofromthe-otter-slide · 4 years

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A Grain of Sand, a Universe of Oceans

Well, it’s bee a while since I’ve written for my Beast Island series, and let me tell ya, I know I promised an ending when I posted my newest chapter of Repercussions, but I couldn’t really get there and tell the story I wanted, ya know? So, I figured why not give some snapshots of Adora and Catra in the universe? I’ve got another chapter already planned and in need of finessing, but if there’s anything you want to see, let me know!

Read of AO3.

Catra feels shifting from underneath her, and without thinking, she tightens her grip.

Adora laughs softly. “Catra,” she whispers into Catra’s hair, “We should probably get up.”

“If you get out of this bed, I’m breaking up with you,” Catra mumbles, burying her face against Adora’s neck.

“I didn’t know the consequences were so dire,” Adora jokes, her fingers coming up to run through Catra’s mane.

Catra just nods and lets herself sink into the comfort of the soft morning and her warm girlfriend giving her affection. She can’t stop the quiet purrs rumbling in her chest, and Adora’s fingers move from her mane down her back.

“You have duties you can’t ignore, you know,” Adora says, and Catra doesn’t acknowledge it.

She knows she has duties. She’s surprised Hakim hasn’t burst through her door with her daily schedule and interrupted their first few peacefully minutes of the day.

She knows that there are trade agreements to look over, merchants and vendors to visit, and advisors to try and shake off throughout the day for just a few minutes so that she can have time to herself.

Catra wonders if she can abdicate right now, even if she isn’t queen yet.

Maybe she can convince C’yra to choose a less annoying advisor.

Catra finally opens her eyes to see that the late morning sun has cast a warm orange glow throughout the room. Adora’s hair, finally free of its ponytail and cut to shoulder length, catches it just so, and blonde hair shines even brighter than She-Ra’s ever could.

She pushes herself up to her elbows and sighs. “How did I become the one with all the responsibilities?”

Adora smiles, “I guess She-Ra isn’t important now that there’s no war to fight.”

Catra scoffs, “It’s been, what? Four years since the Second Battle of Bright Moon, and people still invite you to celebrations.”

“Someone’s just jealous that the last one made a She-Ra cake.”

“Other people fought in that battle.”

“Just admit it, Catra.”

“I’m not jealous of your dumb cake.”

Adora’s smile becomes a mischievous smirk, and Catra reacts before Adora gets a chance to gain the upper hand.

It helps that Catra’s already on top. It means that Adora has to put more strength into her efforts to flip them, and while Catra knows she has the strength to do it, she acts fast enough to stop it.

Adora’s pinned, and it’s Catra turn to smirk. “You thought you were going to be able to win that?” She leans in close, so close that their lips brush where she breathes out, “Pathetic.”

“Have you gotten faster?” Adora asks breathily, and Catra knows it’s not from her small, unsuccessful attempt to flip them, “I think you’ve gotten faster.”

“Not since yesterday.” Catra teases.

Adora tries pushing up to kiss her, but just as quick as she ruined Adora’s attempt to flip them, Catra pushes up and away.

“Well, you did say I have things to attend to,” Catra says idly, sitting up and disentangling herself from Adora, “Being the Magicat princess is truly such an important job, and what kind of monarch would I be if I just lazed around with the great She-Ra in bed all day?”

She goes to get out of bed, and Adora does exactly what she wants.

Adora grabs Catra’s wrist and pulls her just enough to bring her back down to the bed before finally getting exactly what she wanted just a few minutes ago.

Catra grins, “Now who doesn’t want to get out of bed?”

Adora brushes a few stray strands of hair from Catra’s face. “You play dirty.”

“I’ve never liked playing by the rules,” Catra jokes, her hands coming up to rest against Adora’s hips.

“Still so evil,” Adora says through a smile, her eyes sparkling.

“I’m reformed.” Catra pulls Adora down to her, all of the banter getting in the way of what she would rather do.

Adora resists, “Someone’s really anxious after all that teasing before.”

“Why do I date you?”

“You ask that a lot for someone’s who’s been dating me for five years.”

“You’re infuriating,” Catra starts listing, “Way too buff,” Adora hums as if in understanding of Catra’s false negatives, “You steal the blankets,” Adora barks out a laugh, “And annoyingly nice and thoughtful.”

Catra stays away from the words she knows grate at Adora, words tainted by a past that left a mark on them like scars.

Adora’s smile is cocky, and it reminds Catra of those moments in the Horde when Adora knew she was winning, and it doesn’t hurt like it used to. Catra doesn’t think about the sting of perpetually being second best or all the cutting words she received for losing.

All she remembers are the times when it was just them, and Adora gaining the upper hand was just another fun moment of their spar away from Shadow Weaver’s judgement or the bullies within the squad.

“Would you like to keep listing all of my good qualities?” Adora asks, finally leaning in like Catra wanted a few minutes before.

“Oh right,” Catra rolls her eyes, “I forgot to say an ego the size of Etheria.”

“That’s usually the first thing you list.”

Catra’s grip on Adora’s hips tighten as Adora starts peppering small kisses along Catra’s jaw.

“I wanted it last for the emphasis,” Catra breathes out.

She feels Adora’s smile against her throat, and just as her hands slip up into Adora’s hair, there’s a knock at her bedroom door.

Catra groans, and Adora sinks into her with a sigh.

“I swear, I’m going to murder him,” Catra says softly so that Hakim can’t hear her from the other side of the door, “I’m going to bury him so deeply in the Kingdom of Snows that no one will find him for a thousand years.”

There’s another knock as Adora chuckles and mockingly says, “Reformed,” right by Catra’s ear.

“What?” Catra says, loud enough that she knows Hakim can hear her on the other side.

“Are you awake, Princess?” Hakim asks, his voice muddled through the door, and Catra rolls her eyes.

“Obviously,” Adora and Catra say at the same time, but only Catra’s voice is loud enough to be heard.

“You’re needed in the Throne Room at the next possible convenience,” Hakim informs her.

“By whose insistence?”

“The queen.”

“They’re going to find C’yra’s body right beside his,” Catra whispers just to Adora, and as Adora tries muffling her laughter, she says, “Tell Queen C’yra that I will be there in 30 minutes.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Catra doesn’t hear footsteps.

“Go, Hakim.”

“Yes, Princess.”

She finally hears footsteps retreat down the hall, and Adora picks herself up off of Catra. “C’yra has a funny way of picking on you.”

Catra spreads out on the bed as Adora gets up and starts looking for something to wear. “She knows Hakim is driving me nuts,” Catra complains, “Although using Hakim to annoy me is borderline diabolical.”

“Oh yeah,” Adora says sarcastically, “Someone call the Princess Alliance. We have a new evil force to defeat.”

“You’re not taking my suffering seriously.”

“You’re right,” Adora comes and sits on the edge of the bed, “Would you like me to call a meeting to discuss this blatant breaking of the Treaties?”

Catra’s tail comes up to wrap around Adora’s wrist absentmindedly, and she plays with Adora’s fingers just for some contact. “Just because you said that, now I’m going to call a meeting, and everyone is going to show up and I’m going to blame it on you.”

Adora leans forward and kisses Catra lightly. “You don’t have enough time in your busy schedule to make it over to Bright Moon.”

She goes to move away, but Catra doesn’t let her. That small kiss isn’t how she wanted to start her morning. She wants more, and it’s obvious Adora is on the same page, because she doesn’t resist. She sinks into Catra, and they kiss long and slow.

It’s Adora who pulls away first, though. “Responsibilities, Catra.”

“I wasn’t even this busy as Hordak’s second-in-command,” she complains, pulling herself out of bed to finally get ready.

Adora gets dressed before Catra, and she sits on the bed and watches Catra try and decide how formal she has to dress for the day.

“Hey, Catra?” Adora asks, breaking the quiet.

“Yeah?”

“Do the Magicats have a binding ceremony?”

“Of course, we do,” Catra answers idly, finally deciding on a cloak and wrapping it around her shoulders, “C’yra made me learn about it a few years ago. According to her, I could be asked to perform the ceremony.”

“Have you ever thought about it?” Adora sounds a little hesitant, “For us, I mean.”

Catra turns, and Adora’s still sitting on the bed, her smile soft and sweet and shy.

“Have you?”

“Not extensively,” Adora answers honestly, “After all of those years in the Horde, it didn’t even cross my mind that we would need to bind ourselves to each other so formally.”

Catra lets out a relieved laugh, “I thought we were just fine as we are now.”

“Me too!” Adora says, “We live together, and you’re it for me. I just didn’t realize everyone outside of the Horde expects something so formal around this point in our relationship.”

“What brought this up?” Catra asks out of curiosity.

“Glimmer,” Adora answers with a fond roll of her eyes, “She brought up marriage and then asked me whether the Magicat marriage ceremony was different than Bright Moon’s.”

“It is,” Catra says, then adds, “You can also inform her that the state of our relationship is none of her business.”

“With that level of seriousness?”

“Add a glare for good measure.”

“Yes, Princess Catra.”

Catra glares at Adora before looking past her to the clock on her bedside table.

“Shit,” Catra rushes over and gives Adora one last kiss, “If I don’t get to the Throne Room in the next five minutes, Hakim might just break down our door.”

“Better run then.”

Catra playfully hits Adora’s shoulder before turning to leave, and just as she gets to the door, she turns. “Adora?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re it for me too.”

Adora smiles, “I know.”

“See you tonight?”

“See you tonight.”

~*~

Frosta and her advisor finally leave after a trade meeting that went over time by twenty minutes, and Catra’s head hits the table with a loud groan.

“Okay,” C’yra says, closing a folder of revised trade agreements, “You’ve been distracted all day. What is going on?”

“I’m not distracted,” Catra mumbles against the table.

C’yra laughs. “Come on, kitten,” she says, “I watched you and Cassandra spar. You almost let her pin you.”

Catra turns her face out. “I can’t be a perfect warrior every day.”

“Frosta asked you a direct question and she had to repeat herself twice.”

“I rarely listen to what Frosta says.”

“Catra—”

“I’m not distracted! It’s just,” Catra closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, “Adora brought up the binding ceremony this morning.”

“Did she propose?”

“No,” Catra pulls her head off the table, “She just asked me if I’ve ever thought about it.”

C’yra leans back in her chair and asks, “Have you?”

“We both haven’t.”

Catra sees the look of confusion on C’yra’s face.

“The Horde didn’t have any sort of binding or marriage ceremony,” Catra explains, “While relationships weren’t forbidden, it just wasn’t seen as a necessity. Binding didn’t have any benefits for either party, so it wasn’t done.”

“It’s been years since the two of you were there.”

“It’s not like the other stuff,” Catra says, avoiding any discussion of the other habits and thoughts that stuck from the Horde, “It’s just hard for us to see why a formal ceremony is necessary when we’re happy as we are, but apparently this is a normal next step for people who have been dating a significant amount of time and didn’t grow up in the Horde.”

C’yra’s confusion softens into a smile. “Felix and I waited to do our binding ceremony.”

“Why?”

“For one, it’s a bit different marrying into the royal family,” C’yra says, “I didn’t want Felix’s life to change because he gained a role he wasn’t expecting in his life.”

“Right, yes, his role as king must be so difficult for him,” Catra replies in a dry tone, “How long has he spent in the library so far today?”

C’yra laughs, “I believe he’s on hour four.”

“So terrible.”

“It wasn’t Felix who was worried,” C’yra clarifies, “He was more than ready to assume his role. I was the one who didn’t want to thrust being king on him someday.”

“How come?”

“I didn’t want him to resent me,” C’yra looks down at the folder and picks at one of the edges, “I was worried that one day he would realize this wasn’t the role he wanted and I would be to blame.”

“Which never happened.”

C’yra nods. “My point was that you two don’t have to do it just because it’s expected of you.”

“What about my role as princess?” Catra asks, “Don’t I have to have a formal partner eventually?”

“No, kitten,” C’yra leans forward runs a few fingers through Catra’s hair, avoiding the tufts right in front of her ear, “As I understand it, marriage is a bigger deal in Bright Moon than binding is here. You and Adora could go your entire lives without ever being bound and nobody in Half Moon would question it.”

“What about the fact that Adora isn’t a Magicat?”

“Hakim brought that up?”

Catra nods, “He mentioned the law after seeing Adora and me together.”

“You’ve been sitting on that for a while then.”

Catra shrugs.

“You want to know the best part about being queen?”

Catra smirks, “The power you lord over everyone?”

C’yra shoves her gently. “It’s the ability to overturn laws written generations ago by rulers who never stepped foot outside of Half Moon.”

“It can’t be that easy,” Catra says in disbelief.

“I’ll put it before the council tomorrow,” C’yra decides, “I’m more than confident we’ll get a majority vote.”

“I’m so happy your hunger for power works in my favor this time.”

“Keep talking like that and I’ll send Hakim to grab you even earlier tomorrow.”

Catra glares at C’yra, but it does nothing to wipe away C’yra’s smirk. “I’ll get you back for that.”

“I’d love to see you try.”

“I’ll get Dad to help,” Catra says, “And Pisica and Felicity, and I’ll strike when you least expect it.”

“Okay, Catra,” C’yra starts nudging Catra away, “Get out of here before Hakim can rope you into something else.”

“Watch your back.”

“Tell Adora hi for me.”

~*~

Ramiro smiles at Catra as she enters the library, and she gives him a quick wave before making her way to the back corner where she knows she’ll find Felix hunched over a pile of books.

Sure enough, she finds him in his usual spot idly eating from a bowl of fruit and furiously marking down notes. He barely even acknowledges Catra as she sits besides pushing a book her way.

Felix makes one last note before closing his notebook around his pencil. “Using the library to escape your royal responsibilities?”

“I come bearing gifts, actually,” Catra sets the heavy book down on the table, “Adora found it. Apparently, it was found in the Bright Moon libraries, and everyone agreed it should be brought back here.”

“Is that—?” Felix picks up the book like it fragile and inspects the spine, “It can’t be.”

Catra smiles, “It’s Vivek’s histories of Bright Moon and Half Moon as sister cities.”

“This has been lost for a very long time.”

“All it took was Adora getting bored between meetings.”

Felix sets the book down and pulls Catra into a hug. It still feels slightly awkward, but it’s something she’s adjusted to over the years.

Felix likes hugging, just like Scorpia. The least Catra can do is try to return the sentiment.

“Why isn’t Adora here so I can hug her?”

“She went back to Bright Moon after lunch.”

“I’ll see her at dinner though, correct?”

Catra laughs, “I’ll be sure to warn her.”

“What’s her favorite dessert?” Felix asks excitedly, “I’ll make it for her.”

“It’s just a book.”

Felix grabs Catra’s shoulders, and she freezes for just a moment before relaxing.

“This book has been lost for decades, Catra,” Felix says, her eyes and tone almost comically grave, “Adora is a hero.”

Catra snorts, “That’s overdramatic.”

“Think of what we could learn!” Felix grabs the book again and opens it to the front page, “Think about how the relationship between Half Moon and Bright Moon could benefit from this.”

“The relationship between the two cities has been stable and amicable since the Magicats returned.”

“That’s not the point.”

Catra laughs, “She really likes fruity stuff. The last time Bright Moon made fruit tarts for some celebration, I didn’t hear the end of it.”

“Fruity,” Felix says while thumbing through the pages carefully, “I can work with that.”

Catra settles into the quiet sounds of the library, and Felix points to the book he shoved over to her when she arrived. “If you would like to avoid advisors and councils, I think that book would really interest you.”

“What’s it about?” Catra asks, flipping the cover over and reading the author’s acknowledgements.

Catra watches Felix lips quirk up in a barely contained smile. “Binding ceremonies.”

Catra slams the cover shut, “I’ll be adding patricide to my intended matricide.”

Felix starts laughing despite Catra’s empty threat before handing Catra something different.

When Catra refuses to take it, he says, “This is a book on the first generation of Magicats. You were asking about them the other day.”

Catra takes the book and opens to the first chapter discussing the Magicats’ nomadic roots, “You think you’re very funny.”

“I just think C’yra gets all of the fun in picking on you.”

“So you took your chance.”

“I thought it was hilarious.”

Catra rolls her eyes, “I’m sure you did.”

They settle into reading, and Catra is just to the part that describes why a nomadic people finally decided to put down roots when Felix says her name to get her attention.

“Yeah?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I share C’yra’s view,” he says with a soft smile Catra’s come to expect from him in these quieter moments, “Just because you’re the princess doesn’t mean you have to bind yourself to someone, and she doesn’t have to be a Magicat.”

“I figured you would tell me if you had a problem with Adora sometime in the last five years.”

“You know how much we adore her.”

Catra smiles, “I do.”

“I just didn’t want that to go unspoken,” Felix says, “I didn’t want you to think I didn’t support you or your relationship because of outdated expectations or laws.”

“I would never think that of you, Dad.”

And Felix can’t help but smile again, and Catra smiles too.

“Well, good,” Felix says, opening Vivek’s histories again.

Catra breathes out a soft laugh before returning to her own reading.

~*~

Catra wakes up to bright light filtering in through the windows and open balcony doors, and she immediately closes them tight. She cuddles into whatever she’s holding onto, and she realizes it’s a pillow and not her girlfriend.

Adora had to get up early for a meeting of the Queen’s Guard. Catra vaguely remembers Adora giving her a light kiss before leaving the room.

The door opens, and Catra hears Adora’s soft laughter form the doorway.

“You look displeased,” Adora says with a light laugh.

“I hate sleeping here.”

Catra feels the bed dip just so, and then Adora is running her hands over Catra’s back, her nails gently scratching up and down Catra’s spine.

Catra’s purrs are almost instant at the affection.

“You did live here for months when you joined the Alliance.”

Catra opens her eyes just a bit and squints up at Adora. “I didn’t know then that I had a wonderfully dark room waiting for me in Half Moon.”

Adora rolls her eyes, “I still don’t understand how you sleep so well on this bed.”

“I am no longer in the Horde, Adora. I’m not going to sleep on a cot.”

“It’s too—” Catra watches Adora push her hand into the bed, “—squishy.”

“So, ask her Royal Pain in My Ass for something in between.”

“We only sleep here a few nights a month,” Adora says, ignoring Catra’s nickname for Glimmer, “It doesn’t seem worth it.”

“Hey,” Catra grabs Adora’s hand and interlocks their fingers, “If you’re not comfortable, we can go back to the cot.”

Adora brings Catra’s hand up to her lips and kisses along Catra’s knuckles. “I’m more comfortable in this bed than you are on the cot.”

“Are you sure?” Catra pulls Adora’s hand gently to try and get her to join Catra on the bed. The warm morning with the sun seeping into her fur and with significantly less to do than at home has Catra wanting to spend all day together in bed.

“I’m sure,” Adora lets Catra pull her down, kicking her boots off before hugging Catra to her chest, “As long as I have you, I sleep just fine.”

Catra slips her hands under Adora’s shirt and presses a soft kiss to Adora’s throat.

“How was your meeting?”

“Boring,” Adora presses a kiss to Catra’s forehead and starts running her fingers through Catra’s hair, “It seems like every meeting is boring nowadays.”

“So, you, Bow, and Glimmer spent the entire time passing notes and not listening.”

Adora laughs softly, “Angella caught us too.”

“Seriously?” Catra moves away enough to look up at Adora, and Adora is smiling.

“We got lectured,” she says with a smile, “We haven’t gotten lectured since the war.”

Catra smirks, “Who started passing the notes?”

She expects it to be Glimmer, but Adora’s cheeks go slightly rosy, and Catra laughs.

“It started with my doodles!” Adora tries to defend herself, “And then Bow was adding things on, and Glimmer noticed and started to do the same, and before we knew it, we had notes and doodles and were being reprimanded in front of every important official in Bright Moon.”

“How embarrassing,” Catra says through squeaky giggles, “I wish I could’ve been there.”

“If you really want, I’ll do the same thing at our Princess Alliance meeting tomorrow morning.”

“It’s not funny if it’s planned.”

Adora glares at her, “That does not mean you’re going to do anything to get us in trouble.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Catra lies, already thinking through a few ways to distract Adora, “I’m completely innocent.”

“I’m not getting lectured two days in a row.”

Catra snorts, “We’re adults, Adora.”

“You’re not going to do anything, Catra.”

“I’m not going to do anything,” Catra fights a smile, “I definitely will not do anything at all that will result in a lecture from Angella.”

Adora sighs and resigns herself to whatever she knows Catra is planning. She loves the little mischievous sparkle she can see in Catra’s mismatched eyes, though. It reminds her of playing pranks in the Fright Zone, Catra coming up with all of their plans and Adora helping her to enact them to torture their squad.

She remembers one prank that left Lonnie covered in green goo, and Catra laughed so hard her laughter turned squeaky in the way Adora loves.

“I love you, Catra,” Adora runs her thumb over Catra’s bottom lip.

It’s not something they say a lot. It’s something they didn’t necessarily know the right words for for a very long time, and they prefer showing rather than telling, but Adora can’t help herself.

Catra looks so cute and warm snuggled against her, and she’s so happy in this moment that the words spill out.

“I love you too, Adora,” Catra responds easily before leaning forward for a soft kiss. Her nails run gently over Adora’s back, and Adora’s fingers card through Catra long, tangled hair, and they take their time. The kiss is slow and sweet, because there’s no reason to rush.

For once, there’s no impending doom. There’s no great armies to defeat or an entire planet to heal and rebuild.

There’s just the two of them, soft and warm against each other, and Catra thinks about missing the Princess Alliance meeting, thinks about holing up in here with Adora for days just kissing and being together.

Adora kisses her one last time before pulling back, a smirk on her lips.

“Glimmer’s going to bring up marriage when she sees you,” Adora says, biting her lip to stop a grin, “Apparently she feels like she needs to get this from all angles.”

Catra groans, her forehead thumping onto Adora’s sternum. “Why is she still on that?”

“It’s Bright Moon tradition,” Adora says, rolling into her back.

Adora smiles as Catra moves so that she’s lying completely on top of Adora, nuzzling into Adora’s neck and running her nails up and down Adora’s sides.

“To pester your friends?” Catra asks, rolling her eyes.

“To get married,” Adora answers, even though she knows Catra’s question was rhetorical.

“Neither of us are from Bright Moon,” Catra complains, her voice muffled against Adora's throat “Shouldn’t that stop her from bringing it up?”

“Well, technically, I kind of am,” Adora’s hand slips under Catra’s shirt to rest at the small of her back, “It’s not like She-Ra has her own kingdom.”

“You’re not even from this planet,” Catra huffs out, “I think that means that we can do whatever we want, and Princess Sparkles is going to have to deal with it whether she likes it or not.”

“Well, maybe Glimmer will listen to you.”

Catra hums a response, far more comfortable than she was when she woke up, but even as she starts to drift off, a small insecurity nags at her, poking and prodding, and there’s this small whisper, a quiet voice that says, Adora deserves better than someone that won’t even bind themselves to her, that cuts through the warmth and comfort.

She knows that they talked about it, but maybe one quick conversation while they got ready in the morning wasn’t enough. Maybe Adora’s opinion has changed since then. Maybe—

“Catra?”

Adora’s voice cuts off the intrusive thoughts, one hand coming up to bury itself in Catra’s long mane.

Some of the tension leaves her body, and it takes Catra a moment to realize her hands are fisted into Adora’s shirt, her nails close to ripping through the fabric.

“Hey,” Adora’s voice is so soft and gentle, “What is it?”

“Are you sure?” Catra asks without moving her face from the crook of Adora’s neck.

“Am I sure about what?”

Catra sighs. “That you don’t want to get married.”

Adora’s hand moves from her hair to her cheek, and Catra doesn’t resist when Adora gently moves her so that Catra is looking down into bright blue eyes and hair illuminated by the late morning glow.

Adora’s thumb runs across Catra’s cheek, and Catra leans into the contact. “I know it was a quick conversation, but I meant what I said,” Adora whispers, her lips pulling up into a small smile, “I’m happy where we are now. I love you. I don’t need anything formal like a Bright Moon wedding or a Magicats bonding ceremony to make that official.”

“I just thought—” Catra trails off, looking away, because now that Adora has assured her, she feels like she overreacted.

“Are you happy, Catra?”

Catra’s eyes widen, her ears twitching just so, and she looks down at Adora again.

Her Adora, who never gave up on her, even when she gave up on herself.

Her Adora, that fought for her and came to Beast Island without a second thought.

Just, her Adora.

“Of course I’m happy,” Catra says honestly, bringing her forehead down to Adora’s.

“And I am too,” Adora says softly, “If we’re already happy, why don’t we stay where we are?”

Catra smiles, “I’d like that.”

“It’s settled then,” Catra opens her eyes to see Adora smiling, open and bright and so her, “And I can tell Glimmer to back off on the marriage talk.”

“I would also really like that,” Catra says, sinking back down into Adora and getting comfortable.

“I’ll ask for Bow’s help.” Adora’s hands slip back under Catra’s shirt and run over her back.

Catra hums and smiles against Adora’s throat.

Adora talks about this and that, small stories of her and Bow and Glimmer, little moments that Catra misses while Catra’s busy in Half Moon, and she listens to every word, giving a small acknowledgement every now and then to let Adora know that she’s still awake, still listening, still interested.

At one point, Catra drifts off without realizing it, and she wakes up to Adora pressing kisses against her cheeks and nose and lips, softly waking her up so that they can get something to eat, and even when Catra bats her away with a groan, she opens her eyes to Adora smiling at her like she’s the only thing in the universe.

It’s a smile Catra loves and has loved since they were kids whispering in the middle of the night in the barracks, pausing at every small noise and rushing under the covers when the patrols came through to make sure everyone was asleep.

It’s the smile Catra loved even when she hated Adora, fighting against her on opposite sides of a war they ended together.

It’s the smile Catra sees every morning when she wakes up to soft kisses and Adora’s arm pulling Catra even closer to her.

Catra smiles back, warm and happy and content, because she wasn’t lying when Adora asked her if she’s happy.

Every morning she wakes up to Adora, every moment they share together, every spar with quips thrown and every meal they share with Catra’s parents or lunches spent with the Best Friend Squad makes her happier than she ever believed she could be.

Catra wishes she could go back in time and talk to that scared little girl bundled up in Horde-issued blankets crying on the bottom bunk. She wishes she could give her one more promise, a promise that she will make it through. She’ll grow to be stronger and kinder, and she’ll finally learn that love is not always conditional. She’ll find people who love and understand her, and even though she pushes them away at first, they’ll fight for her because they’ll think she’s worth fighting for.

And she wishes that she could tell that girl who loved Adora with all of the feelings she never understood that one day, Adora would love her back. They’ll kiss in the woods of Beast Island and it’ll be like puzzles pieces finally fitting together to make something beautiful and unique and theirs.

You'll be happy, Catra wishes she could tell her younger self, You'll finally be happy.

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zghostreviews · 4 years

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She ra review part 1

I know this isn't anime, but this show and how horrendous the writing got has honestly bugged me to no end.

SheRa 2018 is a "reboot" of the 80s SheRa, though I wouldn't even call it reboot considering the creator trashed the original constantly and also never even watched the original show in the first place. The only thing this "reboot" has in common is that it uses the names of the characters from the original and that's it. The show is basically a fucking fanfiction labelled under original work outside of that essentially.

Going into the actual show topic.

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I started this show pretty much a year or 2 late, basically just waiting for all the drama to die down from the annoying reactionary communities. When starting out, I REALLY wanted to like the show, and honestly, I was enjoying it back then. Unfortunately, as episodes went by I started enjoying it less, ESPECIALLY in season 5 where everything had officially gone to shit.

The writing for this show is honestly fucking awful, they had many great ideas but either these were executed badly, or they didn't go completely through with it. There's also a lot of stuff that didn't make sense. Like when it comes to the princesses, elements, and their runestones. The elemental princesses are all able to do that rainbow power thing that I forgot the name of, yet some princesses that actual have a power that is elemental(*coughs*spinerella*coughs*) aren't able to be included in this. Glimmer which doesn't even use an elemental power can be included, but Spinerella, who literally uses wind, a fucking elemental, can't be included?? That sure doesn't make sense. This show also has a problem with further elaborating on things.

Though they did a REALLY good job with the writing of Shadow Weaver, she is a VERY complex character and you can truely tell the writers put alot of their effort into her. If you're not some fucking catradora stan that just immediately hates her character just because she abused your fave, than you'd definitely agree.

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Going into the characters themselves.

Adora

She's very bland for a main character and Im honestly not a fan of her design. Why is she shaped like one of those bugs from the ants movie when she was a soldier that constantly trained since childhood? She should have muscle of some kind, and that goes for everyone else in the horde minus Rogelio, Scorpia, and Huntara who was a former horde member.

Catra

I really....really don't like catra, she reminds me of 4 different goals I knew....if they all merged into one person... Catra is a selfish, manipulative, and very unstable character. She had SO many opportunities throughout this show, literally since the first season to just join the good side Adora is now on. Catra, unlike Adora was very much aware that the horde was evil since day one, yet when offered the chance MULTIPLE times to join the good side, she refuses, but is still VERY adamant on stalking Adora, and constantly trying to kill her. Season 5 was especially awful, she literally got worse and worse overtime until this season and in season 4 was willing to commit mass murder(or would it be mass genocide?) all because of Adora, just to spite her. I see many catra stans trying to say catra's redemption arc was better than Zuko's when um, no? It wasn't. Unlike catra, Zuko didn't have multiple chances to better herself and join the good side automatically. Zuko, from what I remember, couldn't just immediately drop everything and join the good side. He was a prince of the fire kingdom who was stuck under his father's command and he actively had to work to better himself throughout MULTIPLE seasons before he could join the good side and gain people's trust. Meanwhile Catra had multiple chances since literally day one to better herself and go to the good side, yet she just wanted to be an asshole, attempt to kill everyone, abuse others, and overly obsess over, stalk, and literally murder Adora on multiple occasions. Literal toxic relationship, but that didn't matter as long as it was catradora end game.

Bow

I actually have no problem with him, he's a nice support character. The only annoying thing is that his abs are constantly showing no matter what he's wearing, except for the one time when he was trying to hide his real self when we first meet his dads.

Glimmer

I didn't like this girl either. I hated the way she treated her mother. She just seems spoiled and whiny and way too quick to do things without an ounce of thought. The way she treated her mom most of the time was just completely unnecessary. Like dayum bitch, she just doesn't want to lose the only other family she has left. As someone with mother issues and does not have a mother, Glimmer had literally no reason to be that fucking rude to her mother, her mother just cares about her well being, safety, and overall existence, unlike mine.

Shadow Weaver/Light Spinner

Excellent character, very well written, bonus points for having a hot voice and having big milf energy. She was the horde kids caretaker and trainer from what it seemed. She has a lot of layers to her. If you look more into her character you see that she actually does care about people around her, she just could be emotionally stunted. She was kinda both selfless and selfish. She had this whole obsession with gaining power which she had even as light spinner, which definitely hints at her family maybe being disappointed in her for being powerless or something along those lines. She even shows signs of having been abused herself, but unfortunately continued this cycle of abuse on Catra and Adora specifically. Shadow Weaver had many goals that involved Adora specifically and she was willing to hurt others in order to finish this goal. Even as Light Spinner this was prominent as she was willing to help save the universe even if it ended up harming herself or others around her in the process. She wasn't just some cruel old woman, but a very complex woman that had a lot of baggage. Sucks that they ended up killing her, I wish she got her own redemption because her story definitely had a lot of potential to be great. It would've been cool to see her try to better herself out of her own willingness, repent for the shit she'd done, maybe a childhood backstory to understand her better, and she tries to apologize to those she used and abused and it doesn't in any way involve having to accept her apology. I just think Shadow Weaver was a neat character.

Hordak

The mindcontrolling is not an excuse for how fucking shitty he is, he became a fucking a war criminal and coloniser out of his own free will. The fandom seems to think that shadow Weaver had done everything wrong, but look at hordak like "uwu my sweet cinnamon roll". Hordak literally colonised kingdoms, kidnapped infants and young children, most likely imprisoned and/or killed those babies parents/other family members, tried to take over the whole world, and other actual war crimes, but he got a pass to walk off into the sunset because he had feelings for someone, and his big bro was mean to him when he was in the cult. Don't come at me with the 'buts' you have, wrong hordak didnt do any of the bs our hordak did when he was no longer under mind control.

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I think I'm done for now. It's 1am now. I'm gonna just stop here and continue with more at some point.

#spop critical #shera review #part 1 #long read #mobile post

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kemonododo · 4 years

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Decided to rewatch the whole series after seeing the finale, here's my thoughts as they come along part 1

Razz tells Adora not to look for others to tell her what to do and asks her what she thinks. Adora decides she must fight the Horde. It's poetic that Adora gets so hung up on destiny and fulfilling her goal, when the final message she needed to learn was said in the third episode. Razz is the wisest of us all.

Angella repeats what she heard in the legends of She-Ra, notably that she is meant to "bring balance to Etheria". From Angella's perspective this seems like a good thing, but it's so much more sinister knowing that basically means "to turn the death star on".

Catra was pissed at Adora, but seemed willing to leave the Horde until Hordak elects her as Force Captain. This is the start of her conclusion that Adora was only holding her back, and so the decent of her madness. That little smirk kills me, because that face will shed a lot of tears from this point on.

Season 5 showed us what Adora's She-Ra looks like, without the First One's influence. It might be a bit blasphemous, but I think that reveal would have worked better if this early season She-Ra was the mini-skirt, cleavage design of the 80s. Have a bit of symbolism about societal beauty standards. Love the muscles though that part is perfect.

The first time Catra and Adora meet back up after their falling out is a little unremarkable, the wounds are still fresh and they're still angry at each other but I think both still don't understand how big this schism between them will be.

I just realized Entrapta's castle has a picture of a Tyrannosaurus rex with a unicorn horn and Pegasus wings. Is that what Mara's dragon was!? 😂

God I love Entrapta, even when I first watched this I was excited to see the purple Hatsune Miku in the intro. She always cared about people since the beginning, she just doesn't understand politics.

Castaspella and Angella were shipping Glimbow from the start lol.

The show gives us a full view of how Shadow Weaver's abuse affected Adora. Being constantly pressured to be the best and strongest at the threat of Catra's health has left Adora a jittering wreck. Call me sadistic, but I love that it wasn't resolved in this episode. Adora wins the battle against SW today, but all the way up to the series finale we see SW's dirty fingers clawing away at her conscious. It takes more than 20 minutes to escape a life of manipulation.

Princess Prom! This is when the show goes from a 7 to a 10. Not only the prom being a fun venue, but this is where Catra begins to get some agency. This is the first time she really feels like a main character, which is great because I love her more than anything. Also the first time we see Double Trouble and the Star sisters, which I guess are different from the Star Siblings in season 5? A bit of a continuity error.

Aww, Glimmer is jealous. I can relate to her fears of being pushed out, but the fact that she's pretty madly in love with him adds a whole new layer. Bow is right but he's being a bit insensitive here.

Let's just take a moment to appreciate how far we've come. Remember when this was the gayest thing in the show?

It's fun watching the princess alliance so early in their friendships, they obviously care enough to go with Adora on this mission to save Glimmer, but I love how annoyed and distracted they get with each other.

This episode is also really big for Catra, realizing she will never get Shadow Weaver's approval, that longing look at Adora, "this is not because I like you".

The Beacon is sandwiched between two great episodes that make it feel like filler, but a lot actually happens. We see more of Adora's insecurities, especially how she starts to take it out on herself when she runs into a problem out of her control. We got the formation of the super pal trio, a short lived group with an amazing dynamic. And we also have a huge moment with Angella that basically defines her entire character.

Entrapta's insecurities are revealed. She wants friends, she loves people, but they're complicated and hard and always seem to leave her. It's heartbreaking and something that comes to a head on Beast Island.

I love this scene with Catra and Shadow Weaver. It's clear she still loves her evil mom, and we see how SW has abandoned the idea of Adora for now and is now beginning to manipulate Catra. We also see another Catradora parallel, both of them tell straight to SW face that she has no power over them anymore, something we continue to see is not true.

Promise! 18 months later and it's still my favorite episode of the show. I like how it starts off with the anger they've been feeling up until now, but through the mind melting manipulation by skynet Light Hope, it's multiplied a thousand fold. Before this Catra was pissed at her friend, now Catra wants to murder the person she thinks destroyed her life. After this Catra isn't a cute tsundere, she's completely homicidal. She still loves Adora obviously, but Light Hope has corrupted that love into the most vitriol hate on the planet. It's wild to think they both love each other so much, and yet the abuse that have scarred them prevents that love from breaking free. This is the true moment where the show starts, this is where it became the best cartoon I have ever seen.

Also this is the only time since the first episode and Catra's redemption in season 5 where their chemistry is in full play. They just love each other so much, god I'm fucking tearing up again.

An important thing people forget about the Catradora dynamic is Catra's inferiority complex. She has been told since the day she was born that she is worthless, below Adora in every way. She loves and looks up to Adora, but her existing in Adora's shadow blackens that love. Which is why her joining the rebellion isn't a good ending for her. She needed time on her own, away from Adora, to carve out her own identity. It was her struggles as Force Captain that finally pushed her to start doing good, that realization that she is unhappy in that role. If she had left with Adora in episode 1, she would still be bitter and cruel and toxic, because she'd still be standing behind Adora.

Shadow Weaver's abuse goes both ways, as now Adora feels like she needs to protect Catra like a helpless kitten. That dynamic was not healthy, and it would not have lasted. Catradora can only exist now because they both accept each other as equals.

That final "you promise?", probably the most important words in the show. I've seen this episode a dozen times, but after seeing the finale the tears are running down my face again. Adora was the light of Catra's light, nothing mattered as long as Adora was there with her. She loved her so much. The Fright Zone, Shadow Weaver, her own insecurities, they all impacted Catra. But in that moment, them cuddling on their bunk, it didn't matter. Little did she know Adora loved her back just as much. Fuck I'm crying again.

Catra took that memory, tainted by Light Hope, and saw Adora as a monster. Someone who manipulated her like everyone else and abandoned her at the first opportunity. Someone who broke her most important promise, someone who broke her heart. Catra is probably the best written character in fiction, no I am not exaggerating.

It's a hard follow up after that episode, but the amazing juxtaposition of Entrapta and Light Hope telling the same story with different information is bone chilling and goosebumps giving.

Knowing the whole story of Mara, Light Hope's speeches are terrifying. Her manipulation makes Shadow Weaver look soft. Luckily we have an Alicorn to help, like all other abuse in the show it isn't over in a single dialog exchange, but Swift Wind is speaking the truths Adora needs to hear. The thing about Adora though is one of her main character flaws, she gives in to the doubt her abusers seed her. Her friends constantly tell her she has worth and deserves love, but she has it in her head that she must sacrifice herself for the greater good. That's another reason why Catradora works in the end, Catra helps bring out the selfishness she needs.

Battle of Brightmoon isn't a great finale, my time in the MLP fandom has soured me on "then all the friends came together and shot the villain with a rainbow" conclusion. Luckily, the show would knock the next three out of the park.

Catra starting the new season strong, I love the juxtaposition of the horde soldiers fearing her while the super pal trio doesn't. I love that little smirk, she thinks it's the first she wants yet we all know it's the later.

Frosta got a character change, I understand what they're doing where the other princesses are bringing her out of her shell, but it all happened off-screen so she just seems out of character. The little moment with her and Glimmer is great, and a little bit of forshadowing for Glimmer's queenly role.

Every Shadow Weaver and Catra interaction is fantastic, I love how SW gets so easily under her skin and how Catra pretends to brush it off. Those black tenticles still have a hold on the Kitty's heart.

Ties that Bind is a fantastic episode, especially seeing Catra's interactions with Bow and Glimmer. I love how this contrasts with the season 5 episode A shot in the Dark, here Catra is bullying the best friend squad with malice while the later has Glimmer and Bow playfully making fun of her with love.

Glimmer's actions here are also great forshadowing for her role as queen, especially how desperate she is to destroy the horde and how it affects her morals. Makes her decision to use the heart in season 4 very believable.

I love how Adora keeps referencing ghost stories she heard as a kid. I love the idea of her and Catra under the covers telling scary stories to each other until they'd both end up cuddling while insisting they aren't scared.

Entrapdak! Entrapta's love of science, complete lack of fear, and unending kindness can turn even a dictator cute. They have fantastic chemistry.

I love this little moment with Catra, Shadow Weaver correctly assumes that she's being pushed out and left behind by Hordak, and sure enough she finds Entrapta standing next to him in the lab she was almost killed just for stepping in. Her fears are repeating.

Ah! Goosebumps! The show is slowly moving to be more and more Sci-Fi, and that little shot of Mara's crashed ship with the fantastic music is just a hint to what's to come.

Roll With It is an absolutely adorable low stakes slice of life episode that shows how fun these characters are even when they aren't fighting a war. It's probably the funniest episode in the series, the 80s She-Ra segment is my favorite. There's also the wonderful moment of Adora's breakdown, the pressures of being the world's savior takes a toll on her.

White Out! One of my favorite episodes. The mostly self contained story, the new setting and outfits, great Super Pal Trio bonding, Scorpia being a lesbian, Sea Hawk, and the only time we see the corrupted She-Ra. It's a fantastic microcosm of the show itself, and it's really funny. The Scorpatra stuff is a bit sad knowing how it ends, but it is nice seeing how Scorpia can have a crush while still realizing the toxicity of her relationship later on.

Shadow Weaver's backstory and the biggest window into her head. She believes what she is doing is right, but her methods are full on psychotic, and she was power hungry from the start. I love her so much, she's so deliciously evil. The Eldritch horror that is the spell of obtainment is a treat, and SW's arrival at the Fright Zone is beautifully terrifying. This episode also has the best scenes with her and Catra, it's devastating to watch Catra continue to pine for SW's approval and how, after all this time, SW still only sees her as a tool.

Shadow Weaver is one of my favorite characters, literally every scene with her a amazing. "I can tell by how your voice turns shrill when you scream" what a bitch I love her. I also really like how you can tell Catra and Adora still love her, even after all this abuse. She's a monster, but she's also a mom, and both of those identities conflict in their heads.

Shadow Weaver's and Light Hope's reveal of Adora's origin is goosebumps giving. The revelation that there is a universe beyond Despondos is amazing, but I especially love Light Hope continuing to withhold information and effectively lie to Adora. Razz, Swift Wind, Angella, Catra, they all tell her to make her own decisions but this moment with Light Hope where she is told she doesn't have a choice is what Adora latches on to.

There's also the deal with Hordak, when Light Hope tells the story, she paints it as Hordak ripping the poor baby away from her family. We later learn that's wrong, Hordak saves Adora, he finds a tiny baby and even as a heartless destroyer he knows he can't leave her out there to die. He steals her away, but he does so from Light Hope, the original kidnapper. If Adora was raised by Light Hope, she probably would have fired the heart without question. The Horde was not a good environment to grow up in, but it was an important part in making her the hero the universe needed.

I love Hordak's monologue, the art style and music are fantastic and the whole thing is terrifying. To imagine the big bad horde of the show is just a tiny sliver of what is out there. It also shows Hordak's motivations, which don't excuse his actions but do explain them. This show does a fantastic job at letting us sympathize with the evil-doers, and that has only grown now that Wrong Hordak has shown what it's like to be disconnected from the hive-mind. Bonus points for explaining Imp's origin and showing how Entrapta is exactly the person that he needs right now.

Catra is being embarrassingly edgy here, but it is funny that she's talking about "lost it all" and she seems to think this is rock bottom, oh girl you are in for a ride awakening with how much farther you can fall.

Promise plays again as Adora has another break down. We finally see Mara, and as with everything to do with the First Ones it is chilling. I love this slowly unraveling storyline of Light Hope's true intentions. At this point it is clear she is not to be fully trusted, but we have yet to see how truly sinister her intentions are.

Catra, again, being one of the best characters ever written. She finds a minimum amount of happiness in the wastes, and immediately it all comes crashing down when her trauma resurfaces. That scene of the anger taking over is a masterpiece. I have said a million times that she'd never be truly happy in the wastes, and the later seasons confirm it, but it is heartbreaking to see how even the slightest hint of a smile is ripped off her face.

The Glimmer Angella arguments hurt, they're both right but it's sad to see them fight and how Angella takes Glimmer's advice while Glimmer doubles down on her faults.

Shadow Weaver back on her bullshit, manipulating teenagers to give her power. Noelle mentioned how she truly believes she's on the good side, and obviously she doesn't want the Horde to win, but you can't deny she has some selfish motivations behind recruiting Glimmer. That lust for power remains with her until the very end.

We see Adora getting to Entrapta here, people I think really didn't get their impressions of her right. Entrapta loves tech and science, and sometimes it blinds her, but she isn't immoral, she does care about the safety of her friends.

"You made me this way, and you get to be the good guy" "you couldn't wait to get away from here, from me. But you came back for Adora". You can see how SW's betrayal not only reaffirmed Catra's fears, but was probably just as much a force behind her decent into madness as Adora was.

There's also something beautiful about the symbolism of Shadow Weaver using her new victim like a battery to crush her old.

And Catra betrays Entrapta and Scorpia, this is officially the worst she gets, at this point her hatred of Adora is taking over her. We see more of it in season 4, but her desire to hurt Adora as much as Adora has hurt her causes her to crack like an egg. Scorpia's face says it all.

I love getting to see Catra and Adora in their element, completely in love with each other. None of the complexity of the world at large, just them two together. Even Shadow Weaver's approval of Catra, this is her dream world.

It's funny how Scorpia's first instinct upon seeing Catra is to hug her while her first reaction to Adora is to insult her. She has terrible judgement of character lol

Everyone's insistence that it's "perfect", watching the world shift and fall apart, the confusion, the panic, the show masterfully shows Adora's emotions in this mind-melding episode.

"Soon the two of us will be ruling Etheria together just like we always planned" "Is that what you really want, to rule the world?" "I mean, yeah, obviously. Isn't that what you want too?" God this little moment is perfect, it shows how much they're wavelengths differ. Catra focuses on the "together" while Adora focuses on the "rule the world". Like DT says later, Catra's heart was never truly in it. This thirst for power is just the world's most destructive coping mechanism.

#she ra #spop #analysis

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worryinglyinnocent · 4 years

Text

Fic: From the Brink of Disaster

AU-gust Day Twenty-Eight: Fashion and Models AU Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Pairing: None

Rated: G

Summary: It’s Etheria Fashion Week, and Glimmer’s first show since taking over the Bright Moon Fashion House from her mother. Luckily, she has her friends to see her through.

From the Brink of Disaster

“It’s a disaster!”

Although they could not see Glimmer in all of the hustle and bustle of the backstage area, Adora and Bow would recognise her voice anywhere, and they looked at each other from where they had been directing models through to their various changing areas. Glimmer had been on edge ever since they had arrived at the Fashion Week, but now that the day of her show had arrived, and the models would be on the catwalk in less than an hour, she was practically vibrating from stress.

“Hold this.” Bow grabbed Perfuma from where she was putting the finishing touches to a gown and shoved his tablet at her before she could protest. Adora followed him through the crowded room, pushing past racks of clothing going in every which direction.

Glimmer was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, not exactly the most of out the way place she could have chosen for her breakdown, but it was clear that her location was not at the forefront of her mind, and she was radiating so much tension that everyone was just tiptoeing around her. Paperwork was spread out over the floor all around her, from designs to lists of models to the rather dog-eared Fashion Week schedule that had arrived in the mail three months ago and started this entire rollercoaster.

Up until it had arrived, Glimmer had been going about her days quite nicely. She was still stressed - she had not been expecting to take over Bright Moon Fashion House for a good few years yet and she’d been tossed in at the deep end overnight, but she’d thrown herself into the work and was definitely getting the hang of everything that needed to be done.

The past few months, however, well, they were a different story. In hindsight, having Etheria Fashion Week be Glimmer’s first big show as the head of Bright Moon was probably not a good idea. It was the largest show there was, after all, and there was a lot at stake in terms of professional reputation. Bright Moon was famous for putting on spectacular shows, and now the pressure of that had fallen on Glimmer at a time when she really could have done without it. Bow and Adora had both suggested skipping it this year, but Glimmer had insisted that a no-show would do more damage to the brand’s reputation than a bad show. Bow was beginning to think that he should have put his foot down a bit more, because this had the potential to be a very bad show indeed. Especially if they couldn’t get Glimmer off the floor.

Another rack of dresses flew past them and Adora jumped into a closet to avoid them before joining Bow and Glimmer on the floor.

“Ok, what’s a disaster, and what can we do to fix it?”

“Everything!” Glimmer slapped at her papers. “Nothing’s ready; the showpiece dress that Mermista was supposed to be wearing to finish the show has gone walkabout and Perfuma’s just realised that half of the gowns in the Runestone Shimmer collection are going to go see through under the stage lights!”

“Right.” Bow took a moment to digest all that. It was certainly a catalogue of problems, but it wasn’t the end of the world. At least, he hoped it wasn’t, and he hoped that he could make Glimmer see that.

“Oh, you were right.” Glimmer buried her head in her hands. “I never should have come, I should have waited and done the smaller shows later in the year so that I could get my hand in. Mom always used to make it look so easy!”

Bow was not the type to say ‘I told you so’, and he certainly wasn’t the type to take any pleasure in his best friend’s distress.

“It’s ok,” he said, putting an arm around Glimmer’s shoulders. “We’re here now, and we can’t back out, so we’ll just help you fix it. Adora and I are here to help.”

“Perfuma’s getting everything ready,” Adora added, “so you don’t need to worry about that. Well, she was until Bow accosted her. I’ll look for the dress.” She stood up from her position crouched beside them and yelled across the room. “Mermista!”

“What?”

“You’re with me!”

“Why?”

“We’re looking for your dress!”

“Do I have to?”

“Unless you want to walk the catwalk in your underwear, yes!”

“Ugh, fine.”

Adora ran off to collect Mermista, hopping through another rack that passed them at high speed and vanishing.

“I can talk to Entrapta about the lights,” Bow said. “I’m sure that she’ll be able to come up with something. In the meantime, we should probably get off the floor before we get run over.” He helped Glimmer pick up all her papers and get to her feet, taking her back over to where Perfuma had gone back to pinning hems with Bow’s tablet shoved under her arm. She seemed very glad to be rid of it.

“It kept beeping!” she said accusingly. Bow rolled his eyes and took it back, sitting Glimmer down on an upturned box.

“Ok, Perfuma, you go through all the outfits with Glimmer to make sure we’re not missing anything else. I’ll find Entrapta.”

Finding Entrapta was going to be easier said than done, but Bow was nothing if not determined, and he set off out of the backstage area, attempting to call her and hoping that she would pick up.

“Entrapta’s phone!”

The cheerful voice that answered was not Entrapta, but at least it was better than nothing.

“Scorpia, where’s Entrapta? I need to talk to her about the lights.”

“Ah. I’m not entirely sure where she is. But she did mention lights when she left!”

“Right…” Bow sighed. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the tech box keeping Entrapta’s seat warm. That Catra from the Shadow Weaver Fashion House keeps trying to steal it. There’s really not enough room for all of us in here.”

Finally succeeding in battling his way through to front of house, Bow squinted up at the tech box to see Scorpia waving at him enthusiastically. The guests were already beginning to take their seats; they were running out of time to get everything ready.

“Oh, I see her!” Scorpia pointed above their heads, and Bow looked up to see Entrapta scampering about on the lighting gantry. He gulped. There was no way he was following her up there, and he couldn’t exactly holler up with so many people watching. He waved his arms around, hoping that she’d see him. This was definitely turning into a disaster, but he couldn’t let Glimmer down now.

Adora wasn’t really sure what she made of Mermista turning the disappearance of her showpiece dress into something out of a murder mystery, especially since, to her knowledge, no one had been murdered, but she was beginning to suspect that foul play had occurred. Some of the staff from the Shadow Weaver house had been spotted hanging around in a very suspicious manner whilst Bright Moon’s designs were being unloaded, which was why she and Mermista were now creeping around Shadow Weaver’s backstage area, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

“I knew it!” Mermista grabbed Adora’s arm and pointed towards a familiar mermaid-tail gown, dripping with sequins and LEDs meant to evoke the rolling waves.

“Right. All we need to do now is get it out with no one noticing.”

“I don’t see why. It’s our dress, after all. Why are we the ones sneaking around?”

Adora considered this point for a moment and nodded.

“All right. Let’s get it.”

Throwing all caution to the wind, they raced across the room to grab the dress. Adora sincerely hoped that no-one would try and rip it away from them and leave the thing in two pieces, because Glimmer would never forgive them for ruining her masterpiece.

Thankfully, everyone seemed to be too perplexed by their sudden heroic charge that they let them through. The dress was so heavy with all its embellishments that it took both of them to carry it away and not have it drag on the floor, weaving in and out of the crowd and dodging flying racks left, right and centre.

“Stop! Come back with that!”

It was Shadow Weaver herself.

“Can’t steal what’s already stolen!” Adora yelled over her shoulder as they vaulted back into the relative safety of Bright Moon’s room. Mermista went to change into the dress and Adora grabbed the nearest runner, stationing her in front of the door.

“Guard it with your life!”

The runner, mute with fear and confusion, just nodded, looking warily at the door. Adora dusted off her hands as Glimmer and Perfuma gave her an incredulous look from their corner.

“Well, that’s one problem sorted.”

Out in front of house, Bow had finally succeeded in getting Entrapta’s attention and was trying to use mime to tell her what was going on. Over in the tech box, he could see Scorpia doing the same.

Entrapta, completely confused, mimed back to phone her. Bow sighed and waved over at Scorpia. He was beginning to attract rather a lot of attention from the audience now, and he really wanted to be anywhere other than where he was.

Scorpia waved Entrapta’s phone at her and realisation finally dawned. She scrambled down from the gantry and within minutes, all three of them were in the tech box as Bow explained the situation.

“Oh, that won’t be a problem.” Entrapta waved away his worries and sat down in the seat that Scorpia had just vacated for her, flicking switches and tapping away on her laptop. “We’ll get that sorted in no time!”

Bow checked his watch. The show was due to start in less than five minutes and all the seats in the audience were full. He knew Entrapta could perform technological marvels if needed, but this one was tight, even for her. There was nothing more to be done. It was time to find Glimmer and the others and pray for a miracle.

“Overall, I think we did quite well.”

Glimmer, Bow and Adora were sitting on the end of the catwalk. The audience had left, the models were getting ready to go home, Perfuma was supervising the dresses being packed up to avoid another opportunistic theft, and Entrapta was back up on the gantry adjusting the lights back to how they’d been before she got her hands on them, Scorpia giving her directions and encouragement from the tech box.

“It was touch and go for a moment,” Bow admitted, “but we got through it.”

Glimmer put one arm each around Bow and Adora.

“You guys are the best, you know that? I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.”

Bow and Adora just smiled.

“Any time, Glimmer. Any time.”

#SPOP #SPOP fic #She-Ra and the Princesses of Power #Bow #Adora #Glimmer #AU-gust #Fashion and models AU #Worry does AU-gust #Fic: Brink of Disaster

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