i’m going to accept hordak’s terms. glimmer is all i have.

I’d be more harsh on abandoning her kingdom if it wasn’t implied like Mermista was she’s running on a skeleton crew (likely a large number of her subjects fleeing after the first Alliance failed) and been feeling crushing sense of hopelessness for a while now.

I mean, you think she’d let Glimmer be in the military if she had more viable choices?

The bad guys have child soldiers out of callousness, the good guys here have child soldiers out of desperation.

Catra’s abuse – A Meta (Long)

spacelion-loveshermulletson:

I just.. No. This is not okay.

What Catra does in the show is not right, but her actions makes sense considering her backstory. She has always been abused. She’s always been told she is unimportant and disposable- It’s no wonder she is desperate to want to prove herself. Her insecurity and obsession with becoming more powerful comes from years of living in fear because of this person who keeps threatening her of being KILLED.

She is always the one taking the fall, even when Adora had just as much a hand in their playing and breaking rules. Adora never gets into too much trouble. Because she is the favorite child.

Adora only gets a small pat on the head and is told to “keep Catra under control” and to “not let Catra do things like this again”. Like it’s all Catras fault.

Catra has to watch this happen, just seconds after being threatened to her life for doing the exact same thing Adora did..

This is what Catra has had to grow up with. Being treated like the dirty failure who only accompanies the “perfect, special favorite child”. (Please, understand that I am in no way meaning to bash Adora or anything. I am simply explaining how I think it is seen from Catra’s view)

This alone tells us so much about her mentality, where it all comes from. She is always second best. She is always the black sheep. She is the one who always gets the blame and is so badly mistreated while her friend gets nothing but a slap on the hand, if even that.

Again, while her actions isn’t right, they do make sense. Catra wants to not be that weak, scared child anymore. She wants to prove herself strong.

While seeing Adora as her best friend, she does hold a lot of resentment toward her. For being the favorite. And for not seeming to take into consideration what her own actions can do to Catra (more so in the future than when they were children). When she left to find the sword, she had no thoughts at all what trouble Catra could fall into while covering for her, even when she clearly knows about the abuse Catra resieves from Shadow Weaver.

(Something that’s always bothered me was the coments Adora made in episode 1 about Catra being treated that way because she is “disrespectful”. While Adora probably didn’t mean that Catra deserves the abuse, she still made a coment that sounds awfully like “it’s your own fault”, which is so horrible to say to a victim of abuse. Again, Adora knows about it. She has seen it herself. )

Again, if you’re still reading, I like Adora and I don’t mean to bash her character, but I do understand Catra’s view of it all. She was always the one to take a fall and Adora never seemed to actually stand up for her the way she does for her new friends. Under all these years, Adora has never actually talked back or taking a real stand against Shadow Weaver. Partly because she probably was scared herself, I mean who wouldn’t be? Shadow Weaver was also the one who raised her and it can be hard to stand up to and partly because she still justified the harsh conditions they lived in as being normal in their training for the war.

Adora was also treated badly in the Horde, but not nearly as bad as Catra. Actually, watching the show, Adora seemed to have most things going good for her. She was the favorite. Still is Shadow Weaver’s favorite. She wasn’t treated the same way Catra was.

Catra feels resentment because of that. But she could stand that because they were friends and she cared for Adora. But then Adora left. Just like that. No hesitation. She left to go rebel against the Horde and turn her back on everything she had worked for – after spending a few hours with complete strangers. That made Catra snap.

“You only figured that out NOW?”

Adora never once thought of leaving for Catra’s sake. She would have never turned into a rebel fighter because she saw the abuse Catra went through as bad, no, but because complete strangers got hurt.

And that is the scary thing that Catra had to realize. Adora never saw the Horde as evil until she saw these strangers get attacked. She never saw them as evil when Catra got abused. She never saw them as evil when Catra’s life was threatened.

She had seen all that as normal, excused or even “Because you are rather disrespectful”.

Catra feels worthless to her best friend. She feels abandoned. She feels betrayed.

Does that make what she is doing right? No, it doesn’t.

But it does give an explanation for them.

Catra isn’t just a simple villain who wants to rule everything. She wants power to not be scared and hurt anymore. She wants to prove herself as strong so that she doesn’t have to fear her abusers anymore. She wants to beat the source of her insecurity, which she believes is Adora. She wants revenge for being abandoned by her best friend.

Catra is a really sad character, who I really hope will get a redemption arc.

mustloveshera:

so, here’s my take on this:

catra would have left with adora to join the rebellion if they’d stuck together until that point (albeit with more resistance than adora showed). why? because she was willing to risk being trapped in that forest forever, never having a way “home” to the horde, as long as she was with adora. sure, she wouldn’t have actively tried to find a way to “escape”, but finding a perfect excuse to get lost? she could humor herself with the possibility.

as adora herself said, catra isn’t a bad person. so much of catra’s refusal to join the rebellion is based in her feelings of betrayal, specifically that adora left her and adora chose someone over her. adora, who promised that they would be okay as long as they had each other, and then left catra to deal with the fallout–the punishment that adora always avoided somehow. adora, the one part of catra’s life that wasn’t pure oppressive misery and pain and fear. adora, who, for all that she was oppressed and abused as well, never suffered the same verbal and physical abuse that catra did.

more analysis behind the cut:

Keep reading

Oops unpopular opinion

tumblingxelian:

superpaltriofan:

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.

https://imgur.com/HBfYDbO

mustloveshera:

i’ve talked a lot about catra being the scapegoat, but now i want to talk about adora being the golden child. it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, that’s for sure.

when adora was a child, shadow weaver told her that she was responsible for catra’s behavior, and by extension, her punishments. no, adora wouldn’t be punished for it, but catra would, and that was probably worse. this likely instilled the idea that, if catra got hurt because she “misbehaved” (read: did normal kid things), then it was actually adora’s fault–not catra’s (which it isn’t) nor shadow weaver’s (which it is). if catra suffered, then it was because adora wasn’t trying hard enough–to distract shadow weaver with her own accomplishments or convince catra to stay in line or whatever.

catra completely misinterpreted this, assuming that adora enjoyed this favoritism. is this the reaction of someone who enjoys being the golden child, or is this the reaction of someone who’s terrified?

a lot of people have assumed that adora’s behavior is arrogant, but i think it’s actually just…what she’s been told and taught–

–that she’s important, but not necessarily useful unless she’s doing everything the “right” way. sometimes, being important isn’t actually very comforting; it just gives you more power to make mistakes and let people down.

shadow weaver gave adora the illusion of control over more than her own behavior, and when that illusion crumbled, adora was left with…herself, and a sword. it’s no wonder that she clung to the sword as a source of validation and importance, a way for her to actually help people.

this also explains why she feels such strong guilt for anything bad that happens around her, which light hope recognizes and exploits. all adora wants to do is protect her friends (and, y’know, etheria–no pressure though), but what if she only hurts them? she’s convinced that she does have the power to save everyone, that she is important enough to do everything, and yet, she fails, again and again. even when she has the physical power to throw things around, she can’t heal plumeria’s tree or glimmer’s abilities, because she’s just not good enough.

being the golden child, being told that you’re special and amazing and perfect…a lot of people buckle under that pressure and end up paralyzed by fear that they can’t truly accomplish anything.

luckily, adora has found friends who truly do not blame her for not being able to save everyone, and she finds the strength to get up again and try.

greyisbetterthangray:

some thoughts on catra

I absolutely love Catra. She is an incredibly complex character and I’m going to really enjoy watching her character arc and story play out over the next few years. And while I would love for her to inevitably get a redemption arc, I think she’s going to become a lot worse before if she gets better.

Catra’s entire arc this season was about falling further into darkness as she forsakes Adora and rises in power. Catra goes through her entire life abused and belittled by Shadow Weaver, which leads to her being completely powerless and creating feelings of worthlessness—at least outside of her relationship with Adora. Catra wants two things in life: power and love. And by the end of the season, she finds power and self worth and she achieved that by forsaking love. And now that she finally has power, I think it’s going to be a while before she lets go of it.

In the beginning of the season, we see that Catra is a character who has accepted her role in life. She is still bitter and jealous, as seen by her reaction to Adora becoming Force Captain without her, but for the most part she has accepted her life in the Horde. When Adora discovers the evils of the Horde she instantly abandons it, but Catra was never blind to the Horde’s true nature and she accepted her part in it a long time ago. And why had she?

Well … “Because it doesn’t matter what they do. The two of us look out for each other and soon we’ll be the ones calling the shots.” Catra’s imagined future had the two of them staying together and she stayed with the Horde despite the constant abuse because of that future—because of Adora who she loved. Catra still wants power, as evident by the fact she imagines them in control, but with Adora by her side she was willing to be powerless, to be second best.

And then Adora leaves and we see Catra’s feelings begin to change.

Catra is defined by her bitterness—she’s angry, jealous, and vindictive. When Adora left her, Catra was utterly heartbroken at the betrayal, and while initially Catra wants to bring her back and protect her overtime that desire begins to wane as Catra finds more power in Adora’s absence. And Catra’s anger towards Adora leads to cruelty and manipulations that further push the pair away from one another.

All of those feelings culminate in one of the most emotionally painful episodes in cartoons that I have ever seen: “The Promise.” This is the episode where Catra proclaims that Adora “leaving was the best thing that ever happened to [Catra].” And it is clear why Catra feels this way because of what the flashbacks reveal about Catra and her life in the Horde.

Catra has always been jealous of Adora because of Shadow Weaver’s preferential treatment towards her. Catra was second best and in many ways her survival depended on Adora, as Shadow Weaver flat out told Catra when she was just a child, “I only kept you around this long because Adora was fond of you.” Catra’s entire life revolved around Adora, it had too, and when she left Catra was suddenly stripped from her pre-determined orbit. And in doing so, she was given more freedom and power than she ever had before.

For Catra, Adora leaving provided her with what she had always really wanted, which was power. Catra has been so powerless her entire life and any power she did have came from Adora who protected her. When Adora leaves the other cadets say much the same thing: “Easy, Catra. Adora’s not here to protect you anymore.” Catra, while a skilled fighter, is powerless in the Horde without Adora.

But, at the same time without Adora around her accomplishments are no longer “second best” and Hordak willingly promotes and acknowledges her where Shadow Weaver wouldn’t. Catra becomes a Force Captain and is able to lead several missions on her own. She gains more power with Adora gone and at the end of the season she is even able to overpower Shadow Weaver and become second-in-command to Hordak.

It’s because of this that Catra “realizes” that she doesn’t need Adora to have power and that in fact Adora had “always been holding [her] back.”

Catra gained power and all she had to do was to cut Adora out of her life. Catra wanted two things: power and love. But to Catra, that love didn’t really matter anymore as the Temple highlighted just how little that love seemed to matter.

Adora was the one who protected Catra in the Horde, but Catra was regularly targeted by Shadow Weaver and according to Catra Adora “never protected [her]. Not in any way that would put [Adora] on Shadow Weaver’s bad side.” And after years of friendship together, Adora left—in an instant, in a moment, with no thought to the friend she left behind. This moment, really solidified for Catra that Adora either never truly loved her or that love wasn’t worth it in the first place.

Before Catra even begins to redeem herself, she needs to open herself up to love and friendship again. Which I can see happening with Scorpia (and Entrapta) if Catra takes steps in the friendship, but right now she is in a lot of bitter pain from Adora’s betrayal and isn’t going to be willingly to open herself up like that.

Instead, I think she’s going to spend these next couple of seasons becoming more and more powerful, away and separate from Adora. She told Adora that in the future they’ll “be the ones calling the shots” but it’s no longer going to be a “we” but instead just her. I think Catra is going to overthrow Hordak at some point and become the new leader of the Horde. That, in her mind, will prove herself to be better than Adora and better than anyone who had ever put her down.

I don’t know if Catra will be redeemed, I hope so, but if she does it’s only going to be after she gets much worse. Maybe not “Leader of the Horde” worse exactly, but definitely worse because as long as she is consumed by bitterness and a desire for power—she isn’t going to be happy or willing to forgive and move on.