#like catra just abuses adora a bunch and leaves her there to die

[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.

[haemosexuality]

Catra has been emotionally and physically abused and all her life, treated like trash, all while seeing her best friend - the person who was raised by her abuser - her love - being praised, "loved" (manipulated), favoritized . She had to hear the phrase "if you do anything to jeopardize her future, I will dispose of you (kill you) myself". And the only person she loved, Adora, left her for a bunch of strangers because "it was the right thing to do in a war, the horde hurts innocent people", but she was hurt by the horde her whole life in front of Adora. Isn't she enough? And now, once again, Adora is the hero and the good guy and the person chosen by destiny to end the war (She-ra), and Catra is the villain. Catra stayed in the horde all her life because Adora promised that "Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other, and soon we'll be the ones calling the shots", and then she left her. Catra grew up in Adora's shadow, and now Adora is no longer in the horde- now Catra is Force Captain, now Catra is a villain, now Catra has some power, she is feared, and she has a chance to show everyone that said to her - Adora indirectly, shadow weaver, her team - that she's weak that she is Not. And she has the power to be *more* than Adora, and she won't give that up.

And she's succeeding, she's winning the war, she defeated Shadow Weaver and took her place as Second in Command, and now she can even prove herself to Lord Hordak. Adora is losing, and Catra has people who believe in her more than anything (Scorpia). Then Shadow Weaver manipulates her, praising her, showing her affection, to get out of prison. And she's so happy, because even though she hates shadow weaver, she's her only parental figure and finally she's showing me affection finally she's not putting me down, just for Shadow Weaver to escape. And then Hordak learns that Shadow Weaver has escaped and Catra lied about it and sends her to die in a desert, and she's still without Adora, and she has lost everything. As she said, "Some people have a bad day. I've had a bad life. If I want something, it's taken from me. If I win the fight, I lose the war. Threats only work on someone who has something to lose- and I already lost it all". But Scorpia is there with her, and she wins fights in this desert, and she defeats gang owners, and she manages to capture Adora and her sword, she is far from Horde's dictatorship and militarism and finds out what a party is and she she's happy, genuinely happy, with Scorpia, and Scorpia even talks about them not coming back to the Horde and staying here and being happy together, but Catra grew up in the horde, her whole identity is formed around war and fighting and needing to have some power and prove herself to others and she needs to show to Hordak that she has captured Adora and the sword and that she is Strong and Capable- and then she discovers that when shadow weaver escaped she went to Adora. She manipulated Catra and destroyed her psychologically and made her lose everything she had achieved at the time to go to Adora. And now she's on the side of the "good guys", the person who abused her all her life is on the good side, and she's still the villain who lost everything and got screwed because of Adora - and she breaks down. She wants to end the whole world, literally open a portal that will destroy the world, because she has to win at least one thing and she has to get revenge she has to end everyone in a suicidal act- and she does it .

And she opens a portal that takes them into an alternate reality where no one remembers what happened in the last few months, and she's back together with Adora, and Shadow Weaver doesn't abuse her in this reality, and Adora and her are happy and joking and laughing. Except she knows that none of this is real and the real world is ending but here is so perfect, she never wants to leave. But Adora begins to remember too and she insists that Catra has to remember and that they have to get out of here and "save the world" and once again adora is the hero, once again she prefers to leave me and not be happy with me to "save the world", once again she does not choose me, and Adora goes to save this reality and takes Catra and insists that Catra comes with her to the good side of the war but Catra is angry, she is broken, she cannot live again in Adora's shadow and she wants Adora to die and she will not let Adora win again and she blames Adora for everything that's happened and the end of the world and for leaving her- but Adora, who also was manipulated by Shadow Weaver but already had more time to heal and get out of this abuse of hers, who knows that none of this is her fault- As she said "You (catra) made your choice, now live with it" and fucking PUNCHES catra in the face and even though they were on opposite sides of the war is the first time that Adora really hurt Catra like that, it was always Catra hurting her, and when Adora closes the portal and saves everything she looks with pure rage to Catra and she realizes that, now they're enemies. There's no going back anymore. This is the point of no return. Now it's real.

And Catra, who had said she had nothing left to lose, still had, and she lost it-lost Scorpia's friendship when she decided to open the portal, lost Adora for real now, and now she really has nothing left.

She made her choice, now she has to live with it.