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kraviolis · 11 months

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i told y’all. i told y’all i was gonna go crazy over this post made by @gummy-goat-galaxy

full disclosure i drew literally all of this before looking into the details of the AU so this is 70% my interpretation of his original post but i need to explain my thought process so. here’s the post explaining the details of the actual AU!!! and below is what my brain made up on the spot

ok so belos finds tiny child luz and is like “fuck everyone. this is mine now” and treats her like a goddamn princess. to him, she is a Gift From God to remind him to stay on his Righteous Path. an innocent little girl who is just so bubbly and always tries to see the good in everything, including him. she is a reminder of how Pure and Good humanity is, and seeing as though she’s the literal only human he’s had any contact with besides caleb in 400 fucking years, he is never letting the demon realm corrupt her like it did to him.

she’s basically his Lamb and he the Shepherd, and because he’s so desperate to keep her “““pure”““ he strictly keeps her within the castle and even then not all of the castle is available to her. he keeps her contact with witches to an absolute bare minimum.

he entrusts her protection specifically to hunter, despite the fact he’s only 2 years older. his reasoning is “caleb did a pretty good job raising me so this’ll be fine probably.” when belos himself cannot keep an eye on her, it’s hunter’s job. luz and hunter end up being raised in a sorta similar situation to catra & adora from she-ra but they are actually siblings and not just best friends.

(if u havent seen she-ra, basically its their abusive caretaker creating a golden child + scapegoat dynamic, where one kid can do absolutely no wrong (which doesnt mean they cant still be abused/manipulated!!) while the other kid is blamed for literally everything that goes wrong. the caretaker also regularly pits them against each other to encourage competition & keep the all power in the caretaker’s hands.)

similar to catra & adora, the whole competition thing doesnt really work. luz is just too damn kind and too damn good for hunter to ever resent her, and she’s all he really has. because hunter is the scapegoat, he grows wise to belos’s manipulations WAY sooner. it’s easier to figure out when you’re being mistreated when you literally watch ur guardian treating ur sibling so much better than how they treat u.

unfortunately, because luz cannot help but see the good in absolutely everyone and can be empathetic to a fault, she doesnt realize belos’s game until she ends up sneaking out of the castle. she actually really loves belos and is thankful for him taking her in for a long time. she calls him uncle like hunter, despite belos nudging her towards seeing him as a father bcus he sees her as a pseudo-daughter. (but luz remembers her dad, and has no desire to replace him with someone else no matter how much she cares for belos)

belos does love & adore luz, he would do almost anything to keep her happy and “innocent” and “pure”, but not to the extent that he could still end up redeemed. he still manipulates & subtly emotionally abuses her to keep her in line, but it’s only when she sneaks out and meets eda the owl lady does she start getting clued into this. and once luz learns what belos has done to hunter it’s all fucking over.

hunter loves luz. she is his sister and always will be. but while he’s stuck to belos because of his duties as golden guard, she sees how green the grass is on the other side and doesn’t even hesitate to hop over there. watching her slowly grow more and more distant while she keeps sneaking out to visit with her new friends (eda, king, willow, gus, amity, etc.) is one of the most painful things hunter has had to deal with.

he feels betrayed at first, as if luz is replacing him with other people who arent broken like he is, and when luz actually leaves for good- belos lies to the public and says she was kidnapped- hunter is the one who leads the hunt to find her and bring her back home safely. when they confront each other, luz tries to do her whole dramatic speech about how wrong belos is and how he’s been lying their whole lives, but hunter already knows. the only reason he stayed was for luz, but she couldnt even stay from him? it fuckin hurts man.

they end up on opposite sides for a minute. hunter gains no satisfaction from trying to ruin this new life she’s found for herself but goddamnit, he has a job to do. he cant just defect. and then he defects after watching belos try to kill luz because she’s let herself become corrupted by the witches.

thats about all my brain got for this so far. TL;DR basically just listen to the “first time in forever” and “mother knows best reprise” and “broken crown” by mumford & sons and thats pretty much the gist of it.

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midnightechoes · 6 months

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Five years ago today, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power premiered on Netflix. I had seen a few preview articles about it, and liked what I saw. Those articles mostly focused on She-Ra’s, Adora’s, Glimmer’s, Bow’s, and Catra’s redesigns, and I thought they were fabulous. I loved Adora’s new red jacket and bouffant hair style. Glimmer’s entire redesign was inspired, and I loved that they made Bow black so we could have more diversity in the main cast.

It was She-Ra’s and Catra’s redesigns that caught my eyes the most, though. They made Catra an actual catgirl, and not just in the anime sense where she's just a cute girl with cat ears and maybe a cat tail. She was a full-on furry. It was a brilliant design choice. Honestly it’s no wonder that so many were instantly drawn to her.

And of course, She-Ra herself. I loved her new look, and her huge ass new Sword of Protection. In fact, I loved it so much that I drew this picture of her before the show even came out:

Then the show came out, and needless to say, I fell in love. And honestly, it changed my life.

I know, I know. That sounds very hyperbolic, and to an extent it is, but in a lot of ways, I’m absolutely serious.

Alright, I have to back up a little. Back when I was in college, and for a few years after, a couple of friends and I tried to make a webcomic called The Devil’s Gate. It was minorly successful but eventually floundered. Then I met some people and we tried to make a video game, which also failed. After those few years, I found myself on my own and trying to rework the concept of my webcomic. Making comics, creating stories, those have always been my dream, and I was desperately trying to figure out a story I could make work, something that I believed in. But it never truly got off the ground. By the end of 2015 I had given up on the comic, realizing that after working on it for years in different forms that I needed to step away from it.

I didn’t really know what to do after that. I was still doing my quick daily doodles, but I wasn’t writing, I wasn’t drawing anything of note. I felt emotionally and physically drained of my creativity. I was honestly getting to the point where I thought it might be time for me to give up on trying to be creative or making things all together.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power came out on November 13, 2018, but despite looking forward to it, I didn’t actually watch it when it came out. It wasn’t until that weekend that I decided to check it out.

I was instantly hooked. I binged through the entire season in two days, and did plenty of crying and cheering. And then rewatched it immediately. I was in love. I was obsessed. It had been a long time since anything grabbed me like SPOP did. I loved the characters. I loved the colorful, sci-fi-fairy tale world of Etheria. I loved how unapologetically feminine it was. And most of all, I loved how queer it was.

I hadn’t done a ton of shipping before SPOP. I’ve been down bad for harlivy for what feels like my whole life, and I was angry when Mika and HG didn’t get together in Warehouse 13, but more often than not I had just been conditioned not to look for queer things in mainstream culture, and even barely in subculture.

That is to say, when I was smashed in the face with Catradora I was surprised how much I glommed onto it immediately. I was absolutely taken with Adora and Catra and their relationship. Both characters were so relatable, and despite not quite being text (although the subtext was so loud and obvious it might as well have been text), it was impossible to not read their feelings for each other as romantic.

It wasn’t just Catradora, even if that was a lot of it. Spinnerella and Netossa being canon from the start was wonderful. How much Glimmer and Bow screamed “BISEXUAL DISASTERS” from the start was adorable. Scorpia’s crush on Catra was as cute as it was sad in its one-sidedness.

I had never really been in a fandom. That is, yeah I’ve liked things, loved things even, but I never found other people to talk about it at length, never found discords just for that thing, never read or wrote fanfic, barely ever drew fanart.

But, I watched SPOP, and then I watched it again. And then I drew Catra. And then I drew Adora. And then I drew them again. And suddenly I was on AO3, a site I never frequented, reading Catradora fics. And then I had an AO3 account. That December I participated in Catradora Week 2018 (I’d never heard of this kind of thing) and drew two pictures for it and wrote my first fanfic.

By the end of February I had drawn more in the three months since the show had premiered than I had in the previous year. I was working furiously on a long, multi-chapter fanfic, and writing more words than I had in the previous couple of years combined.

I was inspired again.

In the 18 months that SPOP ran for, I drew more than I had in years, I wrote hundreds of thousands of words. I felt so rejuvenated and happy about my creativity and free for the first time in years.

It’s hard to put into words exactly how it felt. I was so close to giving up my art and writing, which honestly, would have been giving up a part of myself. An important part of myself. It’s not overstating that SPOP saved me, or at least my creative spirit.

I also learned about the wonders of being in a fandom and fandom things like fan weeks, big bangs, zines. And I made some wonderful friends that I cherish to this day.

Even as I inevitably moved onto other hyperfixations, my love for She-Ra hasn’t diminished. Plushie Catra and Adora sit next to me on my desk every day. Catradora art still hangs on my wall.

The inspiration that SPOP ignited in me hasn’t died either. It’s carried me through a tremendous level of creativity that I’ve been riding since the premiere. It let me create a ton of fan art for SPOP, and then RWBY and then the Witch From Mercury, and I’ve written a ton of fanfics for RWBY and Supergirl. And perhaps the best, that inspiration has helped me create more OC stuff in the last couple years than I had in a long time.

I owe She-Ra and The Princesses of Power so much. I am so happy that it exists and that it happened when it did. I’ll always cherish it.

And for real, Netflix, SPOP spin-off movies WHEN?!

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 11 days

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i like the fact that adora gets to confront shadow weaver in s5 and tell her that she will never forgive her. that was nice, it's what shadow weaver deserved and adora also deserved that closure and freedom from her abusive mother's control.

but if the crew really cared about catra so much, wouldn't they give her some closure too? shouldn't they give her a chance to talk to shadow weaver and establish the fact that she is cutting herself away from her abuser and choosing to start anew? but no, all she gets to tell shadow weaver is “this isn't about you, help me save adora”. that's it.

for a show that focuses so much on catra and her trauma, you would think that there would a satisfactory resolution to her relationship with her abuser. but at the end of the day, catra's codependent relationship with her sister matters more than healing or closure from her trauma. at the end of the day, even catra was done dirty by the show writers, all for the sake of some fanservice.

#spop critical #spop salt #spop discourse #spop #spop criticism #she ra #anti spop #anti nate stevenson #tw abuse mention

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sometipsygnostalgic · 27 days

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i'm losing my mind how are there STILL ACTIVE CATRA HATE BLOGS it's been FOUR YEARS how are you still this mad about a female abuse victim!!!!!! how do you STILL not get it!!!!!!!!!!

I have been in enough fandoms to understand that some of the people who stick around the longest are those who act the most scarred after watching the media. It's like stockholme syndrome. Or it's like hating the thing is what gives them drive in the world.

I have also been on the other side of this. I remained a Homestuck blog for a whole four years after the ending made me depressed about Terezi Pyrope, even lasting an additional year and a half after the dogshit epilogues released, through to the demise of Hiveswap and Homestuck^2, before I realised enough was enough and let Adventure Time give me sanctuary again.

But Homestuck had its Gamzee fans who hated the comic and fandom, Adventure Time had its Lemongrab fans who hated the show and fandom, and it seems She-ra has its fair share of antis.

The She-ra antis consist of the following groups, from my observation:

Former fans who got obsessed with some other show and have to bash She-ra because it ain't cool anymore. Usually Owl House fans but can be from anywhere. Their hate is universally connected to propping something else up, and is never done in isolation.

Hordak fans who hate Catra and maybe every other character and crew member and the show. There are a lot of the reverse, Catra fans who hate Hordak, which is part of why this group is so persistent, as a "counter" to this Hordak hate. However, the Catra fans who are Hordak antis MOSTLY do not hate the show (they are just... out of touch with it and generally have bad takes). I've seen one or two extreme cases of Catra apologists accusing Adora, Scorpia, and even Entrapta of abuse, but they were completely alone in their feelings. The Hordak fans who hate Catra tend to also hate Glimmer, Mermista, Adora, Bow, and say that the show is ableist or whatever, but they do not actually harbor much love for Entrapta. Her victimisation is an excuse for their behaviour and they have no understanding of her chaotic character. Do not interact.

Glimmadora fans (the ones who purely seem to exist to make 'Spop Is Abusive' posts). Why the fuck Glimmadora fans hate the show so much, I do not understand. But these are probably the most In-Your-Face of these three groups. While the Hordak fans mentioned above have a lot of similarity to Homestuck Gamzee fans or Adventure Time Lemongrab fans in the weird way they'll hate on the show for doing their blorbo wrong, Glimmadora fans don't have that evidence because they don't really care about Glimmer or Adora. They have absolutely nothing to say about the show, other than that it is Bad. My theory on these Glimmadora fans is that they really liked the Glimmer and Adora ship on a superficial level, and then the show decided to have its Deeper Themes and give Catra and Adora a messy, complicated relationship. There was a lot happening after season 3 where people went "CATRADORA IS REALLY ABUSIVE AND CATRA IS HORRIBLE AND YOU SHOULDNT SHIP HER WITH ANYONE". This period was SO fucking harmful to the fandom that it never recovered, so much work was lost and deleted from AO3. People would say "Glimmadora is a much better ship anyway". But then when season 4 rolled around and, uhh, Glimmer was acting like a little shit all season (for good reason but she really fucked things up with Adora), and Glimmadora crumbled into ash? Well the Glimmadora truthists felt like the show was working against them and that Season 5 was a grand conspiracy to make the Abusive ship Catradora canon!!! The funniest part of this is I sympathise a lot with these feelings. I used to be a Glimmadora truther myself when I watched the show in fall 2021. I was like, "wow, look how nice this ship is. And they go with catradora in the end?? Fucking HOW???". But then seasons 4 and 5 happened and.... yeah, I was disappointed with how Glimmer and Adora's friendship ended up, but I was ENAMORED by the messiness of Catra's character and how raw her and Adora felt about each other even in spite of all the bullshit. I never made excuses about the show being abuse apologising. I analysed it purely in how believable the relationships were and what the intentions of the characters are.

Of these groups, the ones responsible for the most actual SPOP Anti blogs are undoubtedly the Glimmadoras. The only time I've seen something similar, so many antis appearing, was because of Steven Universe ship wars. You have NO IDEA how petty people feel about Lapidot, Amedot, all the dots, all the amethysts. A crew member was chased off the internet over it, or left the internet over the show's own decisions, depending on whether you believe the """screenshots""" that were taken of Zuke's ""private blog""".

#she ra #spop #catradora

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that-ari-blogger · 4 months

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The Aftermath

The Beacon is a very... disjointed episode. It has the unfortunate placement of between two episodes that are, in my opinion, the two best that the show has to offer, and it doesn't matter how good this episode is, it suffers in the contrast.

The Beacon is trying to set up The Promise and still recovering from No Princess Left Behind, which means that it struggles to tie both together without feeling like a ton of disconnected events.

So, for the sake of analysis, let's look at those events on their own, and see what they do for the story as a whole. Because some of them are really well written.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Catra's moments in this episode are genuinely some of the best little moments for her in the series. We see her kind nature start to show, ever so slightly. She is not kind, I want to stress this, a few actions do not make a redemption (yet), but we start to plant the seeds of that here.

In Entrapta's interrogation scene, we see Catra being manipulative, that much is obvious. But it's interesting how she does it. Catra doesn't belittle, or lie, or even seem disingenuous with her compliments, she is just aware that compliments lead to allegiances, and she is trying desperately to befriend the single smartest person on Etheria.

"You're not mad? People usually get mad." "Are you kidding?"

There is an empathy here with Catra. I mentioned in the previous post that everyone's greatest strength is their greatest weakness. And the same is true for Catra. She is exceedingly emotionally attuned. She sees herself in Entrapta, as the person left behind. The side effect of this is that she falls on her sword a bit when Adora leaves, but also in a weird, other way.

"Don't worry about that thing with Hordack. I've got plenty of experience getting yelled at... you get used to it."

Catra is talking to Shadow Weaver here, of all people. Why? Because she sees a person feeling low, and offers some condolences. Without concern for who she is, or what she has done. Catra offers a hand of peace. I want to stress that empathy isn't a weakness, that's not how this works, but it makes her easy prey for Shadow Weaver, because Catra is a child, a teenager, who is naive, and Shadow Weaver is evil.

But how does Shadow Weaver return the openness that Catra has displayed?

"I will not get used to mediocrity like you"

She returns kindness with an insult, and through her touch. Shadow Weaver desires power above all else, so when she is at her weakest, she tries to grab it from the one person she thinks she can mentally overpower.

This is why Catra is the way she is, any attempt at kindness is met with animosity for reasons she has no command in. But that little influence of Adora, and now Scorpia and even Entrapta, has kept the instinct alive. The empathy is there, just buried deep under the surface.

"I just wanted to prepare you for the world"

I love that Shadow Weaver has worked out her tactics are failing on Catra, so she tries giving the Adora treatment to her, and even that fails. I think that's rather satisfying. I pity her, but it is definitely gratifying to see her this low.

Shadow Weaver fits the same bill as everyone else in the series (strengths and weaknesses being the same), but she forms a weird parallel with Bow of all people. Shadow Weaver thinks big picture, she is the strategist, and she gets undermined time and again by the tiny things, such as personal determination, and unconditional love. This parallel isn't dwelled upon, but it's a neat thing to point out that Shadow Weaver's opposite isn't Catra or Adora, but Bow.

Speaking of Bow. The man is supportive of everyone, similarly to Sea Hawk. Bow still thinks big picture, but the difference between him and Shadow Weaver is that when Bow meets a wall, instead of thinking of a way to break it down, he finds another route. Bow is a strategist of the heart, making sure everyone is at their best and ready to step in to keep people's moral up, should they need it.

I also really like Glimmer's line:

"Your sorry is wrong and mine is right."

I think this is extremely revelatory about Glimmer, but that won't come up for a while.

Finally, there is Adora.

Under stress, she reverts. This is what Shadow Weaver did to her, she gave her a few set behaviours in response to certain stimuli. Notably, when scared, punch what I tell you. Shadow Weaver isn't here to give a target, so Adora decks the first thing she can get her hands on. Namely, this light.

There are other sections in the episode when she is in the background of other shots. And instead of just standing there, and looking apathetic, she shadow boxes. Adora cannot focus when she's directionless.

So naturally, she jumps at the opportunity to heal Glimmer, including possibly stabbing her, just to feel useful. Again, preprogrammed responses. She needs to feel useful, so she will run towards whomever is offering her that purpose.

"You want me to be weak? Well (Throws Sword), I am"

This leads into the above line. Adora believes she needs to be weak, and the first thing she does to achieve that is return to her original form and throw away her sword. Adora has associated strength with ability to achieve a given task. In this case, heal.

But the fascinating thing is how she goes about the accountability of failing. She has a weird internalisation of good things being She-Ra's fault, and bad things being Adora's fault. It's awful.

I'm going to finish this on a mildly happy note, because Glimmer and Angella have a really sweet interaction in this episode. Its the reassurance that a parent figure can offer. She offers support, and affirmation that this may not have worked, but it wasn't because of Glimmer's ideals, but her methods, which can be worked on.

Compare the following two lines.

"I will not get used to mediocrity like you" "We'll figure it out, together."

I have boldened a few words, because they reveal character quite nicely. One tries to separate the speaker from its subject, complete with an insult and a comparison, the other is supportive and constructive, and strives to make the listener understand this fact. Angella is a great mum.

Final Thoughts

This episode isn't particularly memorable. Which isn't its own fault. It is sandwiched by The Promise and No Princess Left Behind, which both render it rather uninspiring.

But this episode is actually quite decent. Its moments string together cohesively enough, and Marcus Scribner (Bow's Voice Actor) kills every line.

However, that opening sequence steals the show for me, as everyone leaves on their own way. That was why Entrapta's fake out death doesn't feel cheap. It actually hurts these people, and they don't get over it. This is a death that has its cake and eats it too, and that's a difficult thing to pull off. I think the thing that sells it is this is the only scene so far in the show (I think) in which Sea Hawk stays quiet, the events of the previous episode have managed to make the bard stop singing.

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#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #what's so special about...?#character analysis #she ra and the princesses of power #she ra catra #she ra adora #she ra spop #adora #catra #spop #shadow weaver #she ra #she ra princess of power #she ra bow

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spopsalt · 4 months

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I feel so bad for Kyle, sure he was a part of the horde, but he was probably another kid who was groomed into the position he's in now, he constantly gets made fun of by everyone (Including Adora who's supposed to be the HERO! I love Adora but come on Adora, you're better than this) and it's supposed to be a joke? What's funny about seeing this poor kid get constantly made fun of? I would understand if Kyle was a villain or something but he's just some poor kid who's done nothing to show that he deserves this.

The poor kid has eyebags, the horde probably doesn't give them much sleep, and speaking from personal experience, getting constantly made fun of is mentally exhausting. So not only is he probably physically exhausted, but also mentally exhausted as well. Also, he's another person whose trauma gets ignored for abusive catgirl! You're telling me Kyle has no trauma from not only being in a toxic environment but also constantly getting made fun of? Even when he leaves he leaves with the same people who are toxic to him. Also, him having a crush on a lizard who can't talk is fucking weird. Seriously if Catra wasn't the creator's pet and if spop had actually competent writers spop would be so much better.

#kyle deserves better #spop criticism #anti spop #anti catra #spop discourse #spop crit #spop critical #spop salt

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angy-glimmy · 3 months

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This is crazy how the spop fandom, especially when it's dealing with the pairings and ships in the series, was ABSOLUTELY toxic as hell :/

I think it ruined a lot of things to be honest, and I'm very glad I was never part of any of the dramas or the antis wars or whatever... Of the fandom in general, despite just being in contact with *some* people, who were nice and good.

I mean... For example, you can dislike a ship, or like one more than another, but just spreading the hate and the insults that was spread... That's kinda inhuman and rude :/ Same goes for a specific character or a scene, I mean... Come on, do you think being rude is going to help make it better? Spoilers: nope.

Today, I am almost ashamed sometimes to be a Glimmadora shipper and to post online, because of what most of Glimmadora shippers had done... The hate that was spread, especially towards Catra, or in the fandom Catradora or other shippers :/ I DO NOT want to receive that hate. I am NOT like them. And everyone should have been respectful, because it has ruined the vision of Glimmadora or JUST the vision of the friendship between the girls. And same goes with Catra.

I am personally a nice multishipper who appreciates almost everything... I have my preferences, of course, but it does not forbid me from appreciating OR being neutral towards other things of the show :/ Spop is not perfect at all, there are many things in the story and the character telling that are kind of wrong and badly handled, but it does not mean it's still not a good show, with good things and really interesting characters :/ People hating on Catra or Glimmer I really can't stand any of you anymore, especially if it's just to insult without even thinking. (Counting that both of them are kinda alike when we see the parallels, especially in season 4, but well-)

Well, that's all for me, I just needed to do a post related to that... I have seen a lot of hate content about Spop recently, and I just think it's important to remind people to be, I don't know, *respectful*? It's not hard to be huh. Spreading hate was never the solution, and I find it sad that most good, nice and caring Glimmadora shippers like me, who respect others deeply, are put in the same basket because people just thought being disrespectful and mean would be the solution.

Catradora is canon. Glimbow is canon. Scorfuma also is. As well as Rogelio x Kyle x Lonnie. And that's great, that's the way the series intended to do and to go. But it does not prevent from creating AUs or alternative universes where your ship could be canon! It does NOT mean you should spread hate on official and canon ships, GOSH. And the reverse is the SAME. Stop spreading hate. Spread love, respect and neutrality. You can give your opinion, but BE RESPECTFUL. And NICE.

And I swear to Grayskull if ANYONE EVER insults me on liking Glimmadora a little more than other ships (I'm a multishipper I do like Catradora and Glimbow don't get me wrong), I will commit arson on you with the help of Sea Hawk setting one of his boats on FIRE. (That was for the joke, I stop my very long post here sorryyy I'm just tired of seeing so much hate spread :])

#she ra #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #adora #glimmer #catra #glimmadora #catradora #she ra spop #antis dni

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anti-spop · 8 days

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one complaint i see a lot about spop is how the horde manages to be more interesting character-wise than the rebellion. and i think i can agree.

while all the characters are, well, stereotypes, most of the ones in the horde still have some depth to them. entrapta might be loud and excited about robots, but she's actually very affected when facing the fact she was abandoned (and later betrayed by catra). a little detail i like about entrapta is that she hides her face behind her mask whenever she's vulnerable.

scorpia also has her moment to shine in s4, and hordak is quite an interesting character too (sadly, he didn't get very fleshed out). and of course, there's catra and shadow weaver, whose backgrounds and motivations you can't help but wonder what they truly are. even if, in the end, they were both done dirty by the plot. sadly, i can't say the same for the horde trio, but even they got some moments of reflection in s4.

as for the rebellion... i think glimmer is probably the most fleshed out princess. i'm not sure if i should count adora, bc even if she has her backstory, adora's arc of finding herself and where she came from was completely dropped. her trauma also didn't get as much focus nor respect as catra's did. other than that, bow barely has an arc or a background (we know about his dads but nothing about his siblings - we don't even see them). all the other princesses are just... there. frosta could've been an interesting character, but they drastically changed her personality in s2, and her losing her parents is not at all touched, not even when glimmer loses angella.

on one hand, i can't rlly blame ppl for liking the horde characters more. and i think that sympathizing with the villains isn't a bad thing, it can help us understand that not everything is black and white. the problem is that the rebellion simply doesn't have depth, imo only glimmer does, and she gets a lot of hate for it. but the princesses overall are boring and annoying, they don't have very unique personalities.

spop as whole is superficial, but the horde characters end up being more interesting. and not only that, but the show doesn't rlly treat the war srsly, so it's "easy" to like said characters.

#i post #spop critical

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unownedferalwoman · 11 months

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I love Catra so much sooooo, I might have done 1/2 of the barbie/ken trend real quick with her, I'll draw the Adora half...eventually? (also the open mouth is the variant and it's way worse, but I couldn't 100% settle on the closed mouth)

#catra #catradora #barbie trend #fanart #art #digital art #artwork #trans artist #fandom ships #mugshot #she ra #she ra 2018 #she ra and the princess of power fanart #spop #barbie and ken #she ra fanart

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cirusthecitrus · 3 months

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Can I ask Entrapta and Hordak for the character ask meme?

First impression: with Entrapta, she caught my eye even before the show premiered, when I saw the promo art. I fell in love with her design right away, though i didn't care much for her character at first, just didn't get the hype. It is only after she showed her vulnerable side, when she thought her friends abandoned her (but we knew it was not true!), thats when I got invested. Tuned in for the drama, stayed for the purble mad scientist

Same with Hordak. Didn't care for the character, loved the design. And I loved it specifically because he looked similar to the demon characters from my original story I was working on with a friend at the time. The long pointy ears, the nose, the glowing eyes, the clawed hands and sharp teeth, they also have wings just like Imp!

Oh and I always loved his relationship with Imp, it was so fun to watch these two interact :3

Impression now: to me personally Entrapta and Hordak are the real heart of the show. They are both integral to the story, they're interesting and fun in their own ways and their relationship is simply the best thing the show has to offer. Plus their personal journeys are so exquisitly tragic, love me some good angst

They're both my lil scrunklies, my beloved chew toys, one of my fave evil power couples. Though I gravitate more towards Hordak, he got that melancholic sad doe eyes rizz. And older brother issues (hes just like me fr🤝)

Favorite moment: oof but there are so many. 'Imperfection is beautiful' and 'I am Hordak' are obviously in my top 5, but I also want to mention some other ones

From entrapdak scenes - the one where they chat while sitting on Hordak's throne, the one where Hordak protects Entrapta from the portal explosion and the iconic "What have you done to me?" scene

As for their personal moments, I still giggle at Entrapta's "Do I need to explain math to you?🤨", also I can't get over her soft hum and lil smile when she remembers her lab partner in the portal reality

And with Hordak, again, love all the scenes where he's so casually adorable with Imp, also s4 moments when he's being obsessed with Entrapta (can't deside between the blushing scene and the 'crying over her' scene)

Idea for a story: For Entrapta I've been thinking about an au where she gets consumed by the Island before her friends find her, turning into this scary powerful monster who still has some of her free will. And she either escapes the island herself, becoming a threat to both the Horde and the rebellion (but eventually she and Hordak save each other with the power of love~), or she stays on BI and has this emotional fight with Adora and Bow where she gets to voice all her fears and grievances, but in the end gets defeated and comforted

For Hordak I have this idea about him meeting another clone with the same defect as him. Maybe he was just fresh out of a pod, and his condition only took a toll on him after the fall of Prime. I imagine Hordak being so gentle and protective of him, giving him all the love and understanding + recourses he was deprived of. I also imagine him finally not feeling so alinated when he's around his own kind, like a black sheep among his "perfect" able bodied brothers, because now he knows he's not the only one

Unpopular opinion: Entrapta's trauma should've been treated more seriously and not forgotten right after the Beast Island episode. S5 felt like s4 events were erased from everyone's memory. Also, it should've affected Entrapta more. Again, where are the conflicted feelings towards Hordak? It was never established that she found out the truth about her exile, that Hordak was lied to and had no idea about it. And where are the conflicted feelings towards Catra? The more I think about it, the more I hate that dumb apology and the fact that it was enough for Entrapta to forgive her, after everything Catra did to her and her loved ones

With Hordak... those are not quite common, but it is still tiring to see some fandom opinions where ppl critique this version of Hordak by calling him a loser and a lame villain/character, because he's not "badass" and "threatening" enough and is bad at his job as the leader of the Horde. Cause like... that's the point. Hordak was bad at this because he was not suited for this role, he is not a leader and thats not bad/contradicting writing, thats just his character trait. He was only trying to mimic the only role model he ever had in his life, trying to fit into Prime's shoes and obviously failing at it, because he's not Prime. He was also programmed to be an obedient slave with no wants or ambitions, not a dominant power hungry ruler, and I can only imagine what it took him to become as powerful and threatening as he is in the show. He did not belong on that throne, not because he's incompetent/useless or stupid or a bad warlord, but because choosing to become Lord Hordak, choosing to go all this way to try and prove himself worthy to his uncaring god was,on itself, his biggest mistake, not the right path for him. The Etherian Horde is like that because it's existence was a mistake

Favorite relationship: romantic? with each other. Platonic? Also with each other, but also -

For Entrapta - her friendship with Adora and Wrongie (also Scorpia, but only pre s5 Scorpia, like girl what happened...)

For Hordak - his bond with Imp and his relationship with Horde Prime (i just love how tragic and messed up it is okay?)

Favorite headcanon: idk if a have a favorite, there are all sorts of hcs, so i'll just focus on a random one I like

I do find the idea of Hordak being creeped out and lowkey haunted by Entrapta's cat painting hilarious, but I also like to think that the cat was her real pet, maybe a childhood pet even, and by keeping the painting she honors the memory of her old friend

#thank you for the ask!#ask memes #hordak #entrapta #entrapdak #spop #shera #ramblings #spop meta

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swearyshera · 8 months

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And now for some Shadow Weaver's Dead asks, which I'll answer all as one

@capndragn94 @floorgoblin @baronbrian I'm glad you all enjoyed that scene, so here's a little about my thoughts on it.

I wanted to make her final words similar to canon in their effect, especially with the ambiguity. And I'll point out particularly her lines about regrets ("I thought it'd be black and white - I'd regret these things and I wouldn't regret those things. But now it's looking very gray."). I specifically didn't want her to say 'I'm sorry' or 'I regret how I treated you', because that's too clear, too final, and I wanted to leave both Catra and the audience not knowing whether she did regret how she treated them or not. At the same time, this admission that she might be regretting some of the things she did gives a little bit of hope that will never be confirmed - which is probably going to hurt more than never having that hope!

Looking at the "You win" part, that one came fairly late in development. Initially, I was just going to echo her "It's pronounced thank you, dickhead" or whatever it was I'd written back in S5E2, just as the show did. But that line never seemed to feel like it fit there, and I started rethinking. I also toyed with the idea of something along the lines of "Isn't this what you wanted?" - and that's really the meaning of "You win."

Catra and Shadow Weaver both know that Catra holds no love for her, and has actively hoped for Shadow Weaver to die multiple times (even saying so to her face). But it's one of those situations where it was more from anger rather than an actual desire to see her killed. Indeed, their whole relationship over the years has been more of a struggle or a fight than anything else. They both know it has. So for Shadow Weaver to say "You win" is an acknowledgement that this fight that's been going on for years is over - that Catra is free of it.

But it's not a wholly positive thing. There's a far more traumatising side to those two words, and it is that idea that Catra's getting exactly what she wished for. She's won, but nothing in that moment feels like a victory. As much as Catra despises Shadow Weaver, there's still some weird, fucked-up kind of familial love somewhere deep inside that she hates and that doesn't want her to 'win'. It doesn't want Shadow Weaver to die.

Then you've got a third layer (fuck, that line is like an onion!). She's blaming Catra. Shadow Weaver is looking Catra in the eye and saying "You did this." Remember that she's only at the Heart because Catra made her teleport there. She's only fighting the monster because Catra got caught by it. That "You win" is Shadow Weaver looking at every bit of fighting they've done over the years as one long battle and saying "You finally found a way to kill me. Well done". And it comes at a time when Catra is desperately trying to put that aspect of herself in the past.

There's so much in those two words, and I think it may well be one of my favourite lines on this whole thing.

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ericas-spop-blog · 1 year

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The Horde and Toxic Strength - Lonnie

(Post where I go on way too long about the Horde's ideals of Strength HERE.)

LONNIE

Status: STRONG

Lonnie is, first and foremost, someone who knows what side her bread is buttered on. She's unambiguously 'Strong', and - as somone who values that status - engages with the role far more deliberately and consciously than, say, Adora does.

Lonnie is acutely aware of the biases in the system; she knows that Adora is the Designated Winner in their creche, and that being better than her is just going to earn you a drubbing. So she doesn't try. If Adora is destined to win, then it's Lonnie's job to make that happen.

Lonnie never challenges Adora; instead, she spends her time removing roadblocks and lining up shots, then fading into the background while Adora score the winning goal. She works to reinforce the system, and she is rewarded for it. She gets to be the second-in-command, and be included in the camaraderie. She gets to make Kyle do all her shit work. Not being the Designated Winner even means she gets to be buffered against directly dealing with Shadow Weaver.

The also underlies her interactions with Catra, because Catra is one of those roadblocks Lonnie is responsible for removing. Catra's tactics don't actually matter - the fact that she is endangering Adora's status as The Winner is, in an of itself, "fighting dirty". It's breaking the system, and putting them all at risk.

That's where this bit of hostility comes from, too; with Adora gone, there's a hole in their group's power structure. Lonnie isn't saying this because she has a personal vendetta against Catra, she's doing it to try and stabilize the situation - to prevent Catra from rocking the boat when they're already in middle of a metaphorical storm.

She adjust (relatively) smoothly to Catra's unexpected promotion largely because she doesn't actually hate Catra. Sure, she's shocked, but after that initial outburst she more-or-less realigns herself like the good little soldier she is.

Which isn't to say she likes Catra. Their relationship remains prickly for several reasons - Lonnie has her own feelings of betrayal and abandonment to work though, Catra doesn't do camaraderie - but Lonnie actually tries really hard to make it work, because Catra is now the Designated Winner, and supporting the system is what she's always done.

The thing that ultimately fractures Lonnie's loyalty to the system (and thus to Catra) isn't so much that Adora left (though she did) or that S4 Catra is a bad boss (although she is); it's Lonnie processing that (a) The system never cared about loyalty, only it's use as a tool of control/self-perpetuation and (b) This doesn't means she has to not care about it.

Bonus head-canons/errata:

Lonnie would have backed off immediately and tried a different tack if Adora had ever gotten even slightly snarly about bullying Catra. Lonnie read the lack of confrontation as an implicit endorsement(and was not wrong to do so), even if Adora didn't parse it that way.

Post-series, Lonnie is probably still really angry with Adora, even if she's mostly processed her feelings about Catra. Think in terms of bad bosses: The one who mandated daily overtime and denied sick days is the one who made you quit. They sucked, but they never promised to be other than what they were, and at least you got to end the relationship on your own terms. But the boss who went on and on about being a family, and promised raises just as soon as you were over this hump, and then fucked off a week before Christmas with everyone's paychecks (and who never came back for you)? That's the one you resent.

#spop #personal headcanon #lonnie #series: The Horde and Toxic Strength #the horde

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 2 months

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“you just can't handle toxic queer ships or morally grey queer characters, you want queer representation to be perfect and unrealistic.”

no, actually. one fictional ship that i really like is rose quartz/pink diamond x pearl from steven universe. yes, it's toxic but it's also interesting. and most importantly, it is not romanticized.

it definitely seems romanticized at first, because we were hearing the whole story from pearl's perspective, who was hopelessly devoted to rose. as the plot progresses, we see how unhealthy their relationship was and how much pearl's self-worth depended on what rose thought about her. how much she was willing to sacrifice for rose.

this is a toxic relationship that was written well, in my opinion. apart from pearl's unhealthy behaviour, rose being pearl's master also added a layer of toxicity and power imbalance. and none of this is romanticized. we aren't led to believe that these two characters should have gotten together.

and in time, pearl learns more about what kind of a person rose was and she begins to work on being independent and learning to love herself. by the end of the series, we know all too well that this ship was toxic, despite being complex and layered.

similarly, i talked about malachite or jasper x lapis in another post too. this was another toxic/abusive ship that was done quite well (minus a few hiccups) and was not romanticized or justified in any way.

rose quartz is also an example of a morally grey and problematic character whose actions were not justified by the narrative. she grew up in an abusive family, just like catra. she had her trauma and tragic backstory too. but her actions were still framed as being wrong and the writers don't try to woobify or coddle her.

(there were other examples of problematic characters in SU who got off scot-free like catra did, i'm not denying that at all btw, i'm mad about it too.)

so yeah. we don't hate representation of toxic ships or characters, we just dislike it when toxicity and unhealthy behaviour is promoted in a kids show.

#spop critical #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #spop #she ra #anti spop #anti catra #anti catradora #anti c//a #antic//a #anticatra #anticatradora #tw abuse #tw toxic relationship

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n7punk · 2 months

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“Embrace the Blame (Love the Fall”) Fic Notes

EtB(LtF) is done! For what feels like the first time in a while, a fic managed not to get away from me lol, it just got a little epilogue continuation but otherwise was all good.

Epilogue Life:

I have so many thoughts it’s hard cutting them off.

Adora’s trip home is hard, but it is good overall, and she realizes during it that the reason Hope hasn’t mentioned church when talking is because she doesn’t go a lot anymore (more details lower down). Adora certainly wasn’t going to go with her — Shadow is guaranteed to be there, and Adora can’t be held liable for what she does the next time they meet — but church is pretty much never brought up during her visit. Hope still isn’t perfect, but she’s trying her best, and though Adora discovers bad memories around town along with the good, it turns out to be a lot easier to process now that Catra is back in her life. She kind of tells Hope that she’d like to see her again at Christmas, but in a noncommittal way since she really doesn’t know what that will hold for them.

The rest of the summer is just good. Catra’s internship is hard but valuable, as is Adora’s job assisting Netossa, and they both still have more time than they would during the school year to just be together and have fun with their friends. It’s great for bonding and falling deeper in love, and for integrating their friend groups properly in a way they just didn’t really have time for before.

Catra isn’t ready to go home that Christmas — isn’t sure she ever wants to — and when Adora regretfully informs Hope she doesn’t want to leave Catra alone for Christmas, they take another big step and Hope comes to visit them for the first time. It’s a little weird, but Catra is more comfortable seeing Hope again on their turf, and it turns out to be a good Christmas even around the bittersweet parts. Hope expresses approval for Catra to the best of her ability and that kind of takes Catra out for the afternoon. She doesn’t cry, but that doesn’t mean she’s not emotional enough to.

When they do finally visit home again, it’s a year later, after they have both graduated, Catra a few months established in a role at the company she interned with and Adora freshly moved to a job at a pottery studio, which isn’t exactly where she wants to be, but hey, it’s in her sector. They aren’t visiting because of work, though — they’re engaged and planning their wedding, which absolutely isn’t going to be back home, or be traditional, but they come back for the visit to celebrate and to get some of Adora’s old things from Hope. It’s just a few days, but Catra doesn’t have a bad experience like she feared and she’s more willing to come back for occasional visits to Hope after that, even if their hometown is never going to be her favorite place.

(Like I said, I can keep going, so I’ll just put Shadow’s reaction to that news lower down because I need to at least break this up)

Also I fully planned for Glimmer and Bow to get together in this but then they needed to not be together up until chapter seven and there just wasn’t room to fit it in at that point BUT know that they get together over the summer and everybody ends up laughing about how dumb they were lmao.

Chapter 1:

⦁ Title is from “There’s People Watching” by Jade LeMac.

⦁ I had to edit the fic disclaimer because uhhhh a lot of things happened in this fic I didn’t initially plan. I went into this fic pantsing everything past like, chapter one, so I didn’t know the flashbacks were coming up or any of the partying stuff. Some of this stuff is things I generally avoid, but ideas adjacent to them have come up before, so I decided to just go all in on All The Stuff for this fic.

⦁ Originally this fic opened with a (very brief) flashback scene of the night Catra left, and then I moved it to the opening of chapter 2, but that just wasn’t right so I included Adora remembering that line and that was it.

⦁ The food/dining halls/library/dorms in this fic are just straight up the ones from my own college.

⦁ For non-Americans, Title IX is basically our diversity/inclusion act so like if someone is discriminating against you based on gender or whatever (in a school setting) it protects you.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Title is from “So What Now” By Renee Rapp.

⦁ There was a while there would I would spin the wheels of my little Lego tuk tuk whenever I was in a virtual appointment and that’s where the car thing came from.

⦁ Shoutout to my freshmen year neighbor who would shout “papi” while having makeup sex.

⦁ “Catra flashes her a smile, the innocent one that has always pulled on something inside Adora she never understood but somehow makes her very aware of her tongue in her mouth.” Gee it’s almost like you want to stick your tongue down her throat or something.

⦁ Adora talking about how Catra didn’t change here was explicitly to set up the slow realization that she did. The theme of this fic is change and growth, really — both when it happens and when it doesn’t. No matter how they change, they still were those little girls and that’s so important to how they are now and they can’t let that love they had go. They can’t change in a way that makes them not love each other and even when Adora didn’t change and it was hurting Catra, Catra loved her then, too.

⦁ I mentioned it in my notes here, but I’ve written some of these story beats out of a lot of fics. Tip of her tongue was initially a hiding sexuality story, with Catra running after kissing Adora because the girl who interrupted them called her a dyke and she didn’t want Adora to have to deal with that. Catra cut her hair and everything to put the “blame” on her, it was a whole thing. I had a high school AU dealing with Adora pretending to be straight for a while that never went anywhere too. I finally “got” to do my comphet story here, by which I mean I could have done it at any time but I both didn’t and just got in my head about not wanting to when I kind of did, so I’m glad to have finally gotten it out of my head.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Title is from “There’s People Watching” by Jade LeMac again.

⦁ “Send me something cute” with a wink means “send me a selfie” but Catra’s too resigned for that.

⦁ Catra did NOT buy her sweater, it was her Castaspella Assigned Sweater her first Christmas with Glimmer’s family.

⦁ By complete accident a video about video game elevators came up and played while I was in the middle of writing the elevator scene. As Adora was trying to awkwardly say she didn’t look the narrator went “You can use elevators to force characters into awkward conversation” with a shot of an anime that I swear looked like RGU but I’ve never seen that show and don’t know if elevators exist in it, it was just a hell of a coincidence.

Chapter 4:

⦁ Uhhhh this wasn’t supposed to be here. There was a single paragraph in the last chapter talking about times they had kissed before, and then I went to do a fic note expanding on it, and I… just couldn’t stop. So this happened.

⦁ Here’s an abbreviated version of what that note looked like: Times Catra and Adora kissed: - 1 We definitely need to know how to kiss for this party - 2 I’ll show you how to kiss for your boyfriend (please like it better with me) - 3 Weaver was being homophobic and Catra kissed Adora out of nowhere when she was comforting her, which Adora interpreted as Catra coming out to her. For two days afterwards Catra thought there was a slim chance, despite Adora’s clueless responses on the night of, that they might be dating before a Very Straight comment from Adora brought Catra down to earth. - 4 Actual spin the bottle in the hallway during a school dance. - 5 :) Wouldn’t you like to know (This is the drunk makeout scene, which I didn’t actually write because I wasn’t comfortable doing it for consent reasons. Drunk makeouts can be agreed on and fine (see Glimmer and Catra) but with all the shame Adora felt from it and with her being shitfaced, it didn’t feel good to actually outline, so I skipped to the aftermath instead, which I think better showed Adora’s internalized shame and how it caused her to reject Catra anyway.)

⦁ Whenever I need a random background NPC I just pull up the He-Man wiki and look at the characters list for something that fits enough from the original She-ra. Yes, it’s not a reliable source of information, but I’d hope it’s base character names are at least correct. Aliases I’m less confident in lol.

⦁ “He’ll want to impress you. That’s what I’d do.” That’s what you’d do? Something you want to share with the class, Catra? It seems like you’ve thought about this a lot.

⦁ Catra’s insistence on teenage boys sucking is partially the gender norms Shadow perpetuates, partially her own repulsion to the entire idea of heterosexuality she doesn’t quite have a handle on yet, and part of her trying to convince Adora of all those ideas so Adora will just ignore all those boys and only be her friends for tooooootally normal reasons <3 Definitely.

⦁ Catra was not invited to Caleb’s party, btw, it was just a (pretty obvious) condition of Adora’s attendance that Catra would be there too. Because besties don’t let besties miss out on parties or leave the other alone for their first “real” kiss. Obviously.

⦁ I just find these freshmen being sure high school is like on TV and all sophomores must have done ton of kissing hilarious, but it’s a very Kid thing to believe.

⦁ When I was a kid the game Trace Memory taught me the word crud because the protagonist Ashley said it whenever, you know, you would normally say a swear word. This led to me saying it a lot because it was something I could “get away with” before my mom informed me I could not, actually, get away with it. To this day my mom (who isn’t religious, by the way) insists that crap, damn, and hell are all Swear Words, which I disagree with. I mean those last two, sure, I just don’t ascribe to Christianity. “Crap” though? What the fuck? That is not a “swear word”. It might not be an innocent word, but it is not a fucking swear by any means. You do not have to bleep it out or limit the number of them that appear in a movie to maintain a PG-13 rating or whatever (rumor is you get one “fuck” btw).

⦁ My dark elf lore comes from Knifepoint, with Shadow Weaver’s appearance generally matching her Mystacor look and “dark elves” dubbed so because they are a race of elves with a high degree of photosensitivity that must either cover up or avoid the sunlight to avoid burns and a greatly increased risk of cancer. More info in my “Races” fic extra if you’re interested.

⦁ Shadow’s “reminders” for Adora to bring Catra are both because she thinks Catra is more likely to listen to Adora, and to reinforce for them both what a model daughter should look like. She makes Catra see Adora following expectations every time they see each other, later telling Catra that is what she should be like and slowly driving an uncomfortable wedge between them, reinforcing that Catra will never be Adora and never be good enough for her.

⦁ If I remember the puritan crime severity ranking right, it goes like Blasphemy > Adultery > Murder, which is why Adora brings it up in reference to Shadow’s own sin ranking list. That, and the rumor is that the reason Shadow’s life is how it is is because her husband left her (true) for committing adultery (ehhh it was mostly just because she was a terrible person) so she has dedicated the rest of her life to making herself appear “upstanding” by society’s standards after she “failed in her duties as a wife” (the way the church sees it — she doesn’t feel she has duties to anyone but herself, but she wants them to perceive her as capable), which is actually why she ended up fostering Catra, to appear as close as she could to the vision of a woman put together. She also… has the whole fucked up thing where she “relates” to Catra and wants to make things as hard for her as possible because she thinks she sees herself in her and life was never fair to her (she says in her $800,000 house).

⦁ The coming out scene takes place following one of the incidents Catra alludes to later at the party.

⦁ Adora vision: Oh, she’s kissing me so that I know she’s gay and for no other reason. I will not examine this further.

⦁ I’m convinced spin the bottle isn’t real tbqh, but this fic is me finally doing all the high school &college tropes I haven’t done or have only brushed against over the years, so yeah, it gets thrown in there.

⦁ Alright the spin the bottle scene I wrote in the car so the names just got pulled out of my ass.

Chapter 5:

⦁ Chapter title is from She’s Pretty by Beth McCarthy

⦁ Scorpia is watching “She Loves To Eat”, a lesbian manga/TV show that my friends have loved. It’s actually about all kinds of food but “cooking” just felt weird in that sentence (like it implies some kind of Top Chef thing) so I went with baking.

⦁ Lesbians will literally hide under the bed and call it romantic instead of admitting their feelings.

⦁ It was honestly hard to type Christmas in a fic instead of Winterfest lmao. Making Christianity exist is really antithetical to my usual views. Winterfest is a stand-in for a number of holidays, including New Years traditions, but new years is secular so I usually still leave mention of it as the name for the final day of Winterfest.

⦁ The Dean’s Spotlight is like, another version of a thing we did have at my school, shifted to the left. For this fic the spotlight is basically the faculty nominating the student they think is the best showcase of their school (academics, extracurriculars, and standards wise). Fall highlights one senior and spring nominates one junior, so you only ever have two chances of being picked, but it’s a great networking opportunity.

⦁ Hope doesn’t mention church here because she stopped going every week. She still does it a lot, but while she could go and punish herself with guilt for the rest of her life, there came a point where she just couldn’t keep doing it to Adora once it started to cost her their relationship. Adora brought a little of Mara’s glow back into her life and she couldn’t lose that joy again She did go to church the next Sunday after their phone call though, and made a point of sitting next to Shadow, who of course noticed and struck up “polite conversation” (digging for information as to why she’s approaching her since she usually doesn’t). Hope wasn’t fooled and told her she was just thinking of her because she spoke with Adora that week and she was thinking how much more they used to see each other when they were coordinating their daughters’ playdates. Shadow’s response was “Yes, that will change when your daughter goes off to college and stops speaking to you in favor of a life of sin”. No matter how coolly it was spoken it was the exact opening Hope needed. “Yes, I suppose she has been busy”. This immediately piqued Shadow’s interest because while it wasn’t the first thing Hope ever said about Catra post Catra cutting Shadow off, it was the first in a long time (she said it was not her business to meddle in family at first and barely said anything even before the fallout. She might not have hated Shadow — at the time — but she also didn’t wholly agree with what she saw of her parenting philosophies). Shadow’s response was something to the effect of “What has she gotten herself into now?” to which Hope responded “Nothing bad, making Dean’s Spotlight just takes a lot of work. It’s not an honor lightly earned. Adora could use learning some of her discipline”. Hope wasn’t actually trying to shit on Adora, just make the conversation seem more natural. It’s something she might have said back when Adora was in high school, which was the last time she and Shadow really spoke frequently. Shadow said some stuff about Adora having discipline in other important areas (unaware she came out) and tried to lightly pry for more but Hope got a lot more reluctant to speak after that.

Chapter 6:

⦁ Chapter title from Not My Fault by Renee Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion

⦁ Adora’s whole thing about Bow wanting in a different way than she does is just from how the idea that sometimes it feels like everyone else must be fine on the inside or feeling some pure ideal of emotion instead of everyone just being fucking messy like you, but when you assume everyone else is feeling the Pure™️ kind of sadness with just yearning and no Problematic Jealousy™️ you’re just setting yourself up for disaster because everyone’s emotions are messy.

⦁ Man I miss the art studio I did my freshmen year art project in. Sure, working in it was fucking miserable when it was hot out, but all the light was so great and despite the noise having a fume and particulate hood was really handy. I’ve been doing a lot more crafts project recently and I just do them in my “office” which is a tiny bedroom with a single window that’s on the side of the house that never gets any light it’s sad.

⦁ Lonnie picked up everything Catra was putting down and found it hilarious considering she and Adora were just friends. She wasn’t surprised when Adora started gushing about her girlfriend not long after.

Chapter 7:

⦁ Title from “Friendship Bracelet” by Beth McCarthy

⦁ Adora started freaking out as soon as she got on the phone with Catra for obvious reasons, but she was also internally worried that Catra had attached to someone else there who might not have her best interests.

⦁ They are having two entirely different conversations while Adora is trying to get Catra home. The second Catra says she wants something and Adora stops, her drunk mind assumes Adora knows what she wanted (her) and when she says she can have it when they get home, Catra just goes yayyy make out time! Meanwhile Adora is just like work with me here and you can get as bitey as you want okay. They are living in two different worlds as usual.

⦁ So the original outline of this scene was uh. A little darker. I’ll be honest, I find the final version of the drunk Catra scenes very funny because I love sloppy Catra, but the original outline of the scene called for her getting further in trying to kiss Adora and then crying more than she did and kind of rambling all her insecurities and outright asking Adora why she was toying with her. The final version is the right version.

Chapter 8:

⦁ If I have to tell you this chapter’s title is from “Curious” by Hayley Kiyoko I really don’t know why you’re here.

⦁ Adora does eventually convince Catra to visit the student counseling center, but it isn’t until the next semester, and Catra doesn’t make it a long term habit, just going in for a few sessions to work through some stuff and moving on. There’s processing to do, but she is also one of those people where talking about it only helps so much until it hurts instead.

⦁ Adora got that hopeful smile because Catra’s eyes blew out when she stepped into her view, just like she did the night before, and then she slow-blinked at her immediately after not denying she wanted the things she asked her for last night, but Catra as freaking out a little too much to be that self-aware.

⦁ Not to be NSFW for a teen fic but I do think this Catradora take a little longer than normal to get intimate, but once Adora is comfortable and ready she’s all in.

⦁ The kiss motivation method is an actual thing me and my girlfriend did freshmen year and yes it helps the ADHD but it also makes it worse because you’re thinking about getting the next kiss instead of the dumb textbook lmao.

Chapter 9:

⦁ Title is from “I Think I’m Growing?” by Fletcher.

⦁ This was supposed to be the end of chapter eight, but it felt more right to split it off and make it its own thing, even if it makes for a very short epilogue. It keeps chapter eight the same length as all the rest of the normal chapters (minus the 5 + 1 shoved in the middle of this fic) too, so I decided to split it off even though I was hoping not to increase the chapter count on this one. I have a really terrible habit but my policy is always what’s best for the story and not what’s best for a number so splitting off these “looking forward” scenes was right.

⦁ Entrapta’s relationship with her parents is largely transactional and they just aren’t close at all, so she has to consider the scenario where they deem the transaction “isn’t worth it” anymore. It’s not actually something that would happen, but they just have a weird relationship overall. They aren’t bad people (I mean, they aren’t Shadow), just busy and kind of neglectful, so Entrapta finds a lot more support in her friends, and wanting to be with those friends and have community she didn’t experience growing up is why she likes to share an apartment.

⦁ The waterpark is based on an actual park I used to visit that could hold (and usually did hold) thousands of people at once. The pools would just be seas of bodies, it was insane. I haven't been in years and probably won't ever again because swimming and masking don't exactly mix. It was often manned by college students in the summer rushes, though.

⦁ Okay continuing from the epilogue section: Shadow’s reaction to them getting engaged. True to the protocol of the first few years, Hope doesn’t really tell Shadow anything that’s going on in their lives after that time Adora drops hints for her to, and she sees her a lot more rarely as Hope starts to fade in her faith, so she goes back to just brushing her prying off for years. The engagement is big enough to break that form, especially because Catra drops hints again when they visit that maybe Shadow should know about it. Hope goes back to church the weekend after they leave (her first time in a month — listen, going a few weeks between visits is “falling off” for her. She visits once every month or two at this point, but she is still involved in certain initiatives she deems important, like the annual toy drive). When standing around with a bunch of the older ladies afterwards talking — Shadow included — they’re talking about their “joys” that week and Hope says that hers is that her daughter just got engaged. Shadow is immediately alert as the church ladies offer Hope congratulations and Hope is just quiet and gracious about it. When asked about Adora’s suitor, Hope just says they visited together that week and it’s good to see her so in love. She’s lucky to be marrying her best friend. The ladies just aww and talk about how it’s a shame they had to leave before Sunday so they couldn’t meet them, but Shadow know what that means, and she’s quietly seething. Honestly it’s mostly impressive that she waits until she can catch Hope in semi-private out in the parking lot that she asks if she’s allowing that, which like, wicked not her choice dude, but it’s more like is she enabling it and acting like it’s okay. The answer is just “yes” and Hope ignores her protests otherwise, continuing on to her car. Shadow definitely considers outing them to hopefully have the rest of their congregation exert pressure on Hope for Hope to exert pressure on Adora and Catra to “correct”, but ultimately it would expose her own “failure as a parent” when it came to raising Catra “right”, so it just becomes a “painful secret” for her to bare.

Original Outline:

Since I was wicked winging this one, there really wasn’t an original outline to deviate from. Basically I had the entire first chapter outlined and then… nothing else. Sometimes it’s fun to do a fanfic off the cuff like that.

The one “big change” was my original idea had Catra living in an apartment with the BFS, but I wanted one of them to live on campus.

I also had this vague idea (inspired by “I only smoke to feel bad” by KiNG MALA) where Catra would have another friend group and they would kind of be stoners. She would have someone in that group who she sometimes kind of hooked up with (I went with Glitra instead) and after reconnecting with Adora, Catra goes to one of their hangouts, gets high with them, and then freaks out when that girl gets flirty with her because she’s in a weird frame of mind and suddenly all she wants is Adora again and this just feels very wrong. Because she’s anxious-high she doesn’t do the logical thing of “hey I’m not feeling this” and instead leaves to call Adora to come pick her up. She doesn’t explain much other than “I’m high and I want to go home” at which point Adora is immediately out the door and not leaving her to navigate the bus system. It was supposed to help push them a little more towards being vulnerable with each other as Adora takes her home and tries to take care of her, because I was envisioning their relationship as still being kind of antagonistic at that point.

You can see how that idea became the party scene. There were some things with that I just didn’t want to write, and I think the party version is way more fun, more logical with the set up of the world and characters (which didn’t exist when I had that first idea), and more fitting for where they were in the story.

Aside from that and stuff previously mentioned, it was all off the cuff.

Meta:

Playlist

Upcoming:

To be 100% honest next I’m going to work on my SPOP Big Bang fic which y’all aren’t going to see for months, but then I’m probably going to do the ******** AU. Not saying exactly what that is because a certain subset of people are going to be feral for it and I know it’s at least going to be a bit before I’m ready for it, but since there’s a whole fic between here and there my whims could change too. We’ll see! Updates on my Tumblr as always.

#etbltf #ficmeta #fic notes

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that-ari-blogger · 6 months

Text

The Power Of Adora

Episode 4 of She-Ra, Flowers For She-Ra is the first war story in the series. It depicts the cost of war on people and places, and if it wasn't for how obnoxiously lovable the citizens of Plumeria are, it might be genuinely harrowing to watch (Let me know how it went for you if you didn't find the Plumerians endearing)

But I would like to focus on something else. Adora herself. Up until this point, the series has been showing off how powerful She-Ra is and how she is so useful and so strong and bla bla bla. But this episode focuses in on Adora herself, and what she can do.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

"Can Adora do this?"

I would like to examine how Adora reacts to danger. She runs towards it, she is determined to be useful, and she sees She-Ra as her way of helping. What I'd like to focus on is her vernacular. She refers to the form she is not in as a separate person, and how she refers to each facet of herself is pretty obvious. She-Ra can do things, Adora cannot.

So what happens when She-Ra can't fix the problem? That's what this episode explores.

In this episode, we see Adora's experience of the Horde in full effect. Turns out, having someone who understands the enemy on your side is useful. Who knew?

In this episode alone, we see Adora's understanding of the Horde's tactics used to predict the use of the poison and her knowledge of their routines used to effectively infiltrate the base. There isn't much analysis to do here other than to contrast that with how She-Ra is represented in the stories. She-Ra is a warrior where Adora is a tactician.

It's also worth noting that She-Ra's healing would only have been treating the symptoms of the poison, where Adora went to the source of the problem.

Hope. This is an episode about hope.

Adora's defining skillset isn't She-Ra, and it isn't her background, it's her resilience and perseverance. Adora rarely gives up, she instead seeks a new way to fix a problem. And that has an effect on people.

This is a shot from The Batman (2022) and I promise you its relevant. It's important here that Batman isn't carrying people to safety one by one, he's leading them to a better place. He's helping them to help themselves. This is one of the reasons this is the best live action Batman, because it's not about punching the bad guy, it's about saving people. And the way that is done, isn't by solving all of their problems for them, it's by shining a light and inspiring them to do better and to fix their own lives.

This is the effect that Adora has on people. She inspires people to help themselves. What's interesting is that hope is very much associated with the She-Ra personality. She-Ra is a symbol. Maybe there isn't so much of a difference between She-Ra and Adora after all.

Yes, I just linked She-Ra and Batman. No, I am not sorry.

But there is another effect that Adora has on people, and that isn't any effect that she can see. This episode makes a point of showing the effect of Adora's defection on the Horde itself.

"I know you're lying. You have to be lying. What did you do?"

I don't need to explain how bad this is. Not from a writing perspective, but as something for a mother figure to say to her prodigy.

In any case this little scene displays what Adora defecting has cost these two individuals. Shadow Weaver covets power, she seeks to control every piece on the board, and her most influential has just left her side.

Meanwhile Catra gives this line:

"What did I do? She left us, she left me."

Here we see Catra's abandonment issues coming out. She has taken Adora's leaving personally.

There's a neat little trick with her character design that I want to highlight here. Catra is mostly symmetrical, her mask, her hair, her costume (with a couple of flourishes). Even the marks on her arms match each other. The exception to this is her eyes. One blue, one yellow. Eyes that she can't cover up. Everything about Catra is perfectly even, but it's a facade, and the imbalance in her creeps out through the way she sees the world.

In 1810 Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe wrote that yellow and blue are the two primary colours that are in the greatest opposition to each other.

"Yellow is a light which has been dampened by darkness; blue is a darkness weakened by light."

Once again, this is the influence Adora has had on Catra, and the influence the horde has had. Notice how the hoard bears a green that, in this specific shot, is very similar to Catra's yellow eye. The Horde corrupts. And notice how much the blue stands out. Notice how it is the closest to Shadow Weaver, almost protecting Catra from her. Adora weakens the darkness so that in the end, Catra can be free. I'm definitely clutching at straws here, but it's a neat little rabbit hole.

I'd try and summarise my points here, but I think Glimmer says it best.

"Adora, She-Ra isn't the reason we like you. We like you because you're our friend."

She-Ra is a story about purpose, and acceptance. And Adora's journey is about realising that she doesn't need to fit one single purpose for people. She can live her own way.

The two personalities, Adora and She-Ra, represent the sides of Adora as powerful and Adora as herself. In this episode, we learn who exactly that self is, and what effect that has on the world of this story.

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#rants #literary analysis #character analysis #literature analysis #what's so special about...?#she ra adora #she ra perfuma #batman #she ra spop #she ra #she ra and the princesses of power #spop

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