Alright. So, when it comes to Catra/Scorpia, Catra/Entrapta, or poly of all three, a lot of people bring up how she’s only manipulating them, and how there friendship is fake. Especially with Entrapta. And honestly? I disagree with that.
It’s clear there’s intent of getting use from both of them, but i believe there is a bond between Catra and the other two.
Catra goes out of her way to get help from Scorpia, as shown in Princess Prom. One may argue that she manipulated Scorpia into bringing her to the prom to have an attack on them, but to an extent, i believe she was projecting herself onto Scorpia. Although maybe the beginning half of quarter was manipulation, it didn’t take long until she was rambling about things clearly comparing Scorpia to herself.
And with Entrapta, I’d argue there’s even less manipulation. Catra wasn’t around when everyone [excluding Adora and Glimmer] left, she has zero way to know that the Rebellion assumed she was dead. She can’t lie about something she doesn’t know the truth behind.
I’m sure she had the intent of trying to convince her to join them, but, the “Adora got her precious Bow and Glimmer back. All these princesses care about are people who are just like them.” line is clearly her projecting her own feelings onto Entrapta. She feels like Adora left her for Bow and Glimmer, to join people like Adora.
Plus her initial expressions when she heard of Scorpia feeling disliked by the other princesses and her assuming Entrapta was left behind were openly sympathetic/sad.
In Scorpia’s case, Scopria wasn’t even looking at her, there was no need for her to feign sympathy & her reaction to Entrapta was so swift it is hard to believe it was faked in a show where if she were faking it, they’d show an intermediary expression of her being like “I can use this” but none of that just a surprised, sad look.
catra is trying to continue the cycle of abuse, but she isn’t quite doing it right. she’s mixing up the approaches because she still loves adora on an instinctive level.
when shadow weaver abused catra, to make her feel weak, she did so primarily through overt violence and intimidation in situations where catra had absolutely no chance to fight back.
when shadow weaver abused adora, to make her feel like she was only ever powerful by her side, she did so primarily through gentle touches and false affection.
although catra is being violent towards adora at this point, going so far as to horribly scratch her back, it’s in the context of a fight between enemies. it’s very different from what shadow weaver did to catra.
catra is trying to make adora feel weak, the same way that she’s felt all these years, the same way that she thinks adora wanted her to feel all along. it’s a sick form of revenge for something that adora never actually did.
however, catra is trying to make adora feel weak by emulating shadow weaver’s approach towards adora, which doesn’t quite make sense. is adora the scapegoat or the golden child, or neither? is catra’s heart really in this? does she know what she really wants? would she let adora fall again, outside of that flashback hellscape?
catra is deeply convinced that true power is associated with creating fear, because she felt powerless and afraid all her life, and she wants that power for herself now. she literally wants what shadow weaver had, and has said so multiple times now (”i need to impress hordak so he’ll make me the new shadow weaver!”).
what she needs to realize is that this won’t make her happy, that this isn’t right, and that she’ll be no better than shadow weaver if she continues down this path.
i’m confident that she’ll realize the error of her ways soon enough, but in the meantime, her path is not a bright one.
Whether u like Catra or not, u have to agree that there is something painful about her character when we see that scene where she’s packing up to head to the first one’s temple, and she bumps into Shadow Weaver.
Catra doesn’t degrade her. Catra just… tries to reach out to her and make sure she doesn’t feel bad about herself, cus Catra has felt that way before.
Idk, it’s such a sad scene for me, and I think it speaks loud volumes about Catra’s “better” personality.
Monsters and Stuff 