#and overall even the adora vs catra fights were so?? meaningless?

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Wanna know something super interesting? In the OG show, Shadow Weaver was not the parental type. There was like, only one or two passing references of SW saying to Adora “You’ve always thought of me as a mother figure.” Which may not be true, since Adora doesn’t confirm this. Actually HORDAK was Adora’s family in the Horde, serving as her father figure, and not a (completely) bad one at that. He did lie to her and mind control her to rejoin the horde once or twice, but relative to the new series and Adora’s relationship with SW, he wasn’t that bad. Adora even went on record to say he was a good father when she was in the Horde. She even became Force Captain with hard training and work, because Adora is no nepo baby. Granted, Hordak never finds out she’s really She-Ra. But even as She-Ra, Hordak and her have a sense of honor between the two. When she saved his life by crying for him (long story), Hordak pulled his forces in return.

I really wish they explored that more in the new show. I like SW as a villain. But when compared to Hordak’s old relationship with Adora, it feels boring. ‘Abusive and evil mom’ just doesn’t interest me much as ‘A good and loving father turns out to be an evil warlord’. One has more nuance and conflict in my opinion.

i'd heard a little bit of this and yes, it's infinitely more interesting! in the reboot, adora and hordak barely even interacted. it felt less like she-ra vs the horde and more like adora vs catra. which, while i like personal feuds in media, defeats the purpose of the narrative.

adora is supposed to be fighting the leader of the horde, since she's trying to abolish that system altogether. i get that hordak didn't fight in the war like catra did, partially because of his disability and partially because he's the big bad boss guy who just gives directions. but adora and hordak never comes face to face with each other during the show, which is really weird. again, this is where i feel like the writers were being too childish.

when you're fighting against an evil system, you go for its leader, not the second-in-command. but then again, hordak barely did anything in the reboot, other than yelling at people and breaking down. not a very strong villain.

imagine if in avatar, aang was supposed to fight azula instead of ozai. azula was certainly a terrifying villain but she still was only the sidekick. it would have made more sense if glimmer and bow were left to deal with catra (the same way zuko and katara were left to handle azula in the finale) while adora faces hordak.

and while i'm not upset with the adora and shadow weaver plotline, i absolutely agree that following the og thread would have been better. that way, you could see adora's dilemma with having to fight her father figure whom she actually cared about, and it would have made for a more intriguing narrative.