#s4 cinemanarrative dissonance

[ericas-spop-blog]

Man, it it weird that Adora spends two whole episodes looking for the First One's secret nuke, only to have the show then act like she innocently stumbled over the Heart, and never once in a million years thought about using it? That the idea of using the First Ones Magic nuke was only ever Shadow Weaver and Glimmer's idea?

#spop #scraps #s4 cinemanarrative dissonance #adora #shadow weaver #to be clear while im frustrated by the absolution of adora here #it's more in the context of 'why implicate her at all then?' #if the story wanted her to be smol innocent bean why have her hunt the weapon? #are these episodes what glimmer is complaining about when she accuses adora of constantly running off? #because it sure seems like adora spent a good fifth of the season's run time working alone on a mysterious personal project #that no one else is aware of #and which is very much focused on *adora* winning the war while cutting out glimmer #but it lacks the framing that would make that explicit? #the short scenes of Glimmer asking where she is or what she's doing and getting silence or lies in return?

[ericas-spop-blog]

This is a scrap - and should be read as a criticism of the story telling moreso than of the (fictional) characters - but...

One of the results of Season 4 framing Adora as purely a victim of "crazy ex" Glimmer - Presenting it as if Glimmer was reacting to nothing, that Adora wasn't controlling or jealous or secretive - is that it deeply undercuts the idea that Adora treats Catra badly because She Just Doesn't Know Better.

If Adora treats Glimmer in the same (bad) ways she treated Catra, then it tells us she has flawed assumptions about what a "good" relationship looks like; that her behaviour (if not innocent) is at least sincere, and that she is continuing to apply bad models even in a situation where it does not benefit her(or anyone but Shadow Weaver). Having these models fail her would drive the character towards self-examination and personal growth.

But if Glimmer was the core problem in Season 4 - if Adora was nothing but supportive, even when the circumstances of her youth are recreated nearly 1-to-1 - then we're saying that Adora is already perfect, that actually she does know how to have normal, healthy relationships even under trying circumstances.

Which makes her refusal to extend that care to Catra incredibly suspect. Does she think that Catra is uniquely unworthy of respect?

Or does she just know that other people think Catra is unworthy of respect, and aren't going to say shit (especially when they still need She-Ra to save them)?

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Look, obviously none of this is the intended read; And fwiw, I think that at least the script of Season 4 actually does show Adora replicating her bad behaviours -

being high-handed, controlling, jealous of Glimmer's relationship with Shadow Weaver, and unhealthily invested in her role as The Hero -

and then has those flaws drive personal growth - reflecting on if she is making things worse, recognizing that her idea of being A Hero is to be a weapon in someone else's hands and explicitly rejecting that -

but that this is undermined by the directorial lens overwhelmingly framing Glimmer as The Villain (and thus Adora as In The Right/The Victim/Smol Bean), and that this conflict drives these really ugly implications.

In absolving Adora, the story inadvertently validates her beliefs - even the ones that it set up as false and harmful. Which, yeah, creates the implication that Adora knows when she's acting badly, but just doesn't care (and that we shouldn't either). That her status as "Good" protects her from criticism, and allows her to cast any opposition as defacto "Bad" and not worthy of acknowledgment or examination.

#spop #scraps #s4 cinemanarrative dissonance #meta #i guess? #again this is about the storytelling #the ways that the show undercuts its own themes #because it wanted to criticize and deconstruct heroic narratives #but also uncritically use them in traditional ways #so you get these problems #where Adora needs character growth #but is constantly denied it #because the narrative lens can't confront #that her shit just stinks #without trying to soften or excuse it #oh and don't get me started on how *incoherent* the villainization of Glimmer was #'stop running off alone by which i mean join planned missions with other people' #like this is just straight up “Adora acuses Glimmer of her own canonical flaws” #without even bothering to show Glimmer actually doing these things