#meanwhile when catra got everything she wanted she showed no signs of wanting to change

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

zuko: makes the conscious decision to leave all his luxury and privilege behind to confront his father about the war and right his wrongs, does his best to make up for his actions

catra: only apologizes to adora and does a good thing when she has run out of options and will likely be cast out by horde prime, immediately goes back to her toxic nature as soon as she's rescued

[it-fits-i-ships]

Combing through every single episode of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous for Yasammy moments to write meta analysis about part 3 (parts 1, 2, and 4)

Brooklyn asking Sammy if she has a crush on Yaz gives me life! Brooklyn doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would joke about something like that and genuinely wants to be better friends with the other people in the group so trying to bond with Sammy by having her confide in Brooklyn about crushes, this suggests to me that Brooklyn has been picking up on signs of Sammy’s interest in Yaz, based on the things I’ve already talked about I have to agree with Brooklyn: at this point Sammy has caught feelings for Yaz but she hasn’t consciously realized it yet, possibly due to growing up on a ranch in Texas where she may not have been exposed to the concept of queer people in a positive light (if at all) and almost certainly because she has never been in love before When they are building up the fort defenses against the scorpius rex Sammy comments on what a good team she and Yaz make, I think that she has been thinking more about her feelings toward Yaz and trying to really define them since Brooklyn asked about crushes (but it’s hard to thoroughly sort through your feelings when you’re running for your life all the time and come from a sheltered background), meanwhile Yaz is shutting down again because Ben got in her head about the group’s likelihood of splitting up after they get back home, here is possibly the first person Yaz has trusted enough to let into her personal life, someone she can show her drawings to and talk to and joke with, someone she knows isn’t going to abandon her or be cruel to her, someone who will support her but also encourage her personal growth, someone she can trust with her life (and possibly her heart?) but then Yaz realizes that external forces (aside from the obvious ones like being killed by dinosaurs) could pull Sammy away from her and she simply can’t handle that idea Notice the tears in her eyes and the resignation on her face as Yaz decides it’s best to push Sammy away now so that it won’t be as painful later, so that she’ll at least have some semblance of control, she clearly doesn’t want to cut ties with Sammy but Yaz is so used to taking the lead and handling things on her own and we know for a fact that she doesn’t have a well-developed set of healthy coping mechanisms, notice how she can’t even look Sammy in the eye when she’s saying all of this stuff about their friendship having an expiration date and them having nothing in common, she knows on some level that it’s not true and that she’s really hurting Sammy by saying these things but fear has gripped her so tightly she pushes past her better judgement, when Sammy says, “You’re my best friend” we can hear Yaz gasping softly and we can see a change in her face that suggests she is questioning her decision to push Sammy away, clearly such a blatant statement of affection from Sammy means a lot to her but in the very next sentence Sammy reminds Yaz of her fear and Yaz doubles down I would also like to point out that the term “best friend” has definitely been used in children’s media, especially with same-gender pairings, to hint at a closer relationship without explicitly stating that it’s romantic (think Applejack and Rarity in Equestira Girls) or to hint that the relationship might develop into a romantic relationship (think Catra and Adora in She-Ra), it's also very common in fiction as well as in real life for young queer people to develop feelings for their best friends while they are figuring themselves out, so it’s little wonder that this whole scene has that "couple going through a rough patch" kind of vibe However, we can instantly see the regret that Yaz feels about pushing Sammy away so strongly and that feeling only intensifies after Sammy gets stung by the scorpius rex, Yaz sees this happen firsthand and immediately calls out to Sammy without hesitation, she has abandoned her plan because (once again) she has decided that Sammy is more important, notice that when Sammy is fading out of and back into consciousness we see and hear things from her perspective and Yaz’s voice is the last thing she clearly hears before

she passes out and the first thing she clearly hears when she wakes back up, this suggests that Sammy was paying the most attention to her, Yaz’s expression has so much concern in all of these scenes, she is terrified (again) that she’s going to lose Sammy, unlike the more abstract fear of losing Sammy that arose after they thought Ben died this is a very tangible and immediate fear, Sammy has venom pumping through her veins and if they don’t do something she will die, when she tells Sammy that everything is going to be okay she is talking as much to herself as she is to Sammy Yaz has to run to the lab and get the antidote, this is an interesting plot point because of course Yaz is a track star so it makes the most logical sense for her to run to the lab but she is also the first one to volunteer, look how she just shoots up from Sammy’s side, she is chomping at the bit to make things better, she literally says, “I don’t care what’s out there, I’m saving her,” as in she doesn’t care if she gets hurt or chased by dinosaurs or scared out of her wits as long as she gets that antidote to Sammy (and through her journey to get the antidote we learn that it’s not just Sammy’s health she wants to remedy but their relationship), she wills Sammy to hang on long enough for her to return After Yaz falls into the river and nearly drowns she decides to take a second and catch her breath against a tree, she’s clearly feeling low and even a little hopeless, this is when we start to see Yaz remembering important moments with Sammy, she warmly remembers the first time Sammy reached out to her and it drives her forward, notice how the flashbacks are tinted orange, obviously they had to differentiate the flashbacks from the current action somehow but I think that the choice of orange is a little bit of an Easter egg, Yaz's "orange, orange, and orange" response has clearly become an inside joke between Yaz and Sammy so what if Yaz now associates the color orange with Sammy?

When Yaz is hiding from the scorpius rex outside of the lab and she’s terrified (it legit looks like she’s starting to have a panic attack) she remembers that one of the last things she said to Sammy before she got stung was, “We’re not best friends, we never were,” this fills her with determination, she has to push forward, to summon all her strength and push that fallen tree away so she can get into that lab and find the antidote, she has to get back to Sammy so she can make everything right and tell her that she didn’t really mean what she said (which I will talk about more in the next post)

[bloodraven55]

The Potential of Glimmer's Villain Arc

Okay so a lot of people have been theorising about what's coming next for Glimmer's character with everything that's happened in Season 3. And I have plenty of thoughts of my own so this is going to be my longest analysis post in a while. I'll put it under a cut for ease of reading, and I hope y'all enjoy!

So as an introduction let's briefly look at where Glimmer is now. She's getting ever closer to Shadow Weaver, and we all know how well that ended for her father, plus the loss of Angella is undoubtedly going to be hugely traumatic for her, especially because as she herself says she assumed that Angella would always be there since she was immortal.

Angella is gone, Adora is going to be under a whole lot of mental strain of her own due to the revelations she's had about her past and the pain of having lost both Catra and Angella for good as far as she's concerned, the rest of the Princess Alliance aren't exactly around a whole lot at Bright Moon, and it doesn't look like Shadow Weaver is going anywhere any time soon as long as there's power to be had and the Rebellion is where she can best work towards her own goals.

What I'm saying is, Glimmer likely isn't going to have much of a support system except for Bow next Season, and she's in a prime position for Shadow Weaver to employ similar manipulation tactics and methods of abuse on her as she did on Catra and Adora. Glimmer has no real experience with that type of abuse and manipulation, or any real frame of reference to understand the more nuanced form of evil that Shadow Weaver represents, and so she probably won't realise that she's being played and pushed down a darker path until it's too late.

So with that basis established let's look at some of the other signs that seem to point towards an arc of this sort for Glimmer.

One very significant thing is some of the cinematography in Moment of Truth.

First Glimmer is positioned directly in front of the image of her father in this shot, showing us that she's figuratively as well as literally taking the same position as Micah with regards to becoming Shadow Weaver's pupil. Note that she’s standing in darkness rather than in the light in this frame as well, because that’s going to be important going forward.

It’s also very telling that this shot comes right after Glimmer argues with her mother about the best course of action and first suggests accepting Shadow Weaver’s help. The visual symbolism of her replacing her father on screen reflects her taking the first step towards filling the same role as him in the story as well.

Then we have Glimmer flat out stepping from the light into the darkness as she decides to perform the spell with Shadow Weaver. Which is extremely Not Subtle.

Plus the angle of the following shot making Shadow Weaver's outstretched hand look bigger and more striking to highlight the threat that the offer poses.

And finally there's the way that the scene where they actually do the spell is framed. Shadow Weaver's hand extends through the circle, like a barrier is being crossed metaphorically, and again it fills the screen to make it seem threatening and imposing.

Meanwhile when we get the reverse shot, which I might add is clearly meant to actually be from Shadow Weaver's perspective, Glimmer looks very small and very young, an uncertain and far less powerful figure ripe to be taken advantage of.

There is no way that the tone of this scene was accidental. Without any dialogue being exchanged it's telling us that Glimmer is going to suffer for this choice---it's telling us to be worried---and it's honestly a masterful piece of television.

Another aspect that isn't hugely noticeable on first watching is the undercurrent running through the show of Glimmer's desire for power. She's not obsessively power hungry the way Shadow Weaver is, that's for sure, but she does often demonstrate annoyance at her own limitations.

"Glimmer is frustrated by the constraints of her magic, by the constraints of being a princess, the daughter, of this immortal queen — her mother is this kind of immortal, untouchable angel and her father was the best sorcerer that Mystacor has ever seen. And she’s in the shadow of that." (x)

This quote from a recent interview with Noelle Stevenson pretty much spells it out, and I don't think I need to mention the importance of the use of the word "shadow" here.

With all of that covered, I want to move on to something I haven't seen talked about as much, which is the ways that Glimmer and Catra are paralleled in the story.

"In some ways I think [Glimmer]’s a little bit of a mirror to Catra, although neither of them would ever admit it."

I find this quote from the same interview incredibly intriguing, and it gives me lots of ideas about not only the potential development that a villain arc for Glimmer could bring to her own character, but also the development it could bring in terms of her and Catra as foils for each other in the narrative.

For a start, Noelle then goes on to talk about how "it’s always been this kind of like losing battle for [Glimmer]" and I would like to point out the resemblance to Catra's lines about how she "never gets to win" and "if [she] wins a battle [she] loses the war", because this really does seem to foreshadow that Glimmer could end up in a similar place next season to where Catra was at the end of Season 3.

"So when someone comes to her and offers her more power and the ability to actually really save the day and prove her worth, she takes it. Glimmer’s also sorta crossed the line in the sand this season."

This part of the interview I want to bring up just to further prove that the way these things were written this season was certainly deliberate and it isn't reaching to draw these conclusions from them. It's apparent that the writers are very aware of what they're doing in terms of Glimmer and Catra's character arcs and the possible link between the two so I simply wanted to include this quote to give my analysis here a more solid grounding.

The one thing I'd like to pick out of that as well is the idea that Glimmer is looking to "prove her worth", which is something that has been the core of Catra's decision making throughout most of the show so far. In the past it was Catra making bad choices in an attempt to get respect and admiration from Shadow Weaver, and now I believe it will be Glimmer's turn to do the same.

But beyond that, I want to wind the clock back to the beginning of Season 3 for a moment, specifically to when Glimmer asserts that "evil people don't change." Adora is quick to point out that that is an extremely reductive mindset to have and far from always the case, though she does so by applying it to completely the wrong target in the form of Shadow Weaver who is almost certainly not going to be redeemed in any way, but that got me thinking about how Glimmer flirting with her inner darkness could be utilised in the story in exceedingly interesting ways.

The most obvious path is that through having to redeem herself for bad decisions that she made for understandable reasons, Glimmer would come to realise that things aren't as black and white as people being good and evil but rather there is far more nuance to be found with regards to morality. Basically, she would gain a greater understanding of what it means to be good or bad and the possibility of redemption first hand and grow to acknowledge that she was wrong to oversimplify it down to a binary choice of people being immutably good or evil and never able to change.

However, I would also like to discuss how Glimmer's villain arc could intersect with Catra's redemption arc. Glimmer has always balked at Adora's attempts to get through to Catra, telling her that Catra is evil because she's with the Horde and dismissing the notion of a redemption for her. But if Glimmer sinks to that same point---if she hits rock bottom the way Catra did---and she sees Catra pick herself back up and rebuild herself successfully to become a better person than she was before?

Well, then that could provide some amazing inspiration for Glimmer to then follow in her footsteps and break free from the cycle of Shadow Weaver's abuse herself as well. Add Catra getting to see that the Princesses are far from perfect but fallible people just like everyone else on top of that, and both Glimmer and Catra would evolve as part of the same arc and come out of it with a much stronger understanding of each other and just how people work in general.

Lastly I want to bring up this quote that I’ve put below from a recent convention.

"Interesting foil! Catra is a secretly sweet person with her darkness on the outside. While Glimmer is the opposite."

As well as again emphasising that Glimmer and Catra are in some ways two sides of the same coin, this would definitely seem to back up my theory and indicate that Glimmer has depths that she herself doesn't even understand that are now going to be pulled to the surface by Shadow Weaver.

To add to this, in the interview I drew from earlier Noelle comments that "the way this season ends has major repercussions for Glimmer. It throws her into a world that she never expected to be in." I think the second half of that quote is key. Glimmer never realised that she had this darkness within her, let alone expected to tap into it, and this is why it could lead to serious growth for her as a person to discover the worst of herself and in the end choose to cultivate the best of herself despite that.

There’s one more layer to the Glimmer/Catra aspect of all this as well if you combine this theory with the concept of Micah being alive and mentoring Catra during her redemption process. Because it would link Glimmer and Catra even more closely and beyond that it would create a great call back to the fact that this arc started with Glimmer being paralleled with her father.

And if Catra does work with the Rebellion at some point in the distant future, this could also serve as a starting point for the two of them constructing a friendship using the foundation of that shared similar experience (and also a shared father figure potentially) as they learn how to be part of the same team. It might also play into restoring Adora's faith in the people around her as seemingly losing Glimmer to darkness so soon after losing Catra the same way would undoubtedly nearly destroy her and it would give her some much-needed motivation to see both of them pull themselves back from that.

Anyway, there we have it. Those are all of my thoughts on why I do definitely see some kind of villain arc for Glimmer, and how I think it could be an excellent addition to the show for a number of reasons. Thanks for reading and see y'all next time.