🥝 i'm a critical swiftie and strongly believe in matching catradora to her song lyrics 🥥
🥝 i'll post random thoughts i have and whatnot related to the show and reblog stuff i like. this includes icons. (i take requests! i cut out .pngs of characters and put them on a new background.) 🥥
🥝 url + pfp are references to this (it's catra's VA) & you should watch THIS (it's a catra video edit)! 🥥
while you’re here, you should watch these edits by lilovxe on instagram because they’re literally so perfect and such high quality that you’d believe the show really happened that way:
Btw if you reply to my posts of me having fun with my show whining and bitching about why you don’t like it then I will delete your reply. And if you keep doing it and I start recognizing your url I will block you. I cannot emphasize enough how much I do not want to see that and how much I do not give a shit about your complaining. Make your own posts. And tag them as salt so I can blacklist them. And to everyone wondering why I keep having to say this: I know right????
im rewatching she-ra and naturally im gonna want to write about it a lot. starting by breaking down the catradora conflict origin story scene from s01e02 the sword part 2
people have said this before but the most important thing to keep in mind here is how different their understanding of whats going on is. theyre both approaching this with completely different views and so they misunderstand what the other means.
Adora: There’s no time. We have to put a stop this.
Catra: What? Why?
Adora: Because this is a civilian town. Look around! These aren’t insurgents. They’re innocent people.
Catra: Yeah, sure. Innocent people who kidnapped a Horde officer. Now come on, let’s get you back to the Fright Zone. Shadow Weaver is freaking out. [laughing] It’d be funny if she weren’t such a terrible person.
so immediately theres two things i wanna say about this part, about how catra reacts to stuff. first off, something we learn about catra throughout the whole show and especially in the portal-alternative-reality, is that shes big on Pretending Nothing Is Wrong. whenever shes feeling upset or angry about something, she will start joking around and acting like shes just totally super chill guys, dw (“Ugh, whatever. It’s not like I even care. I just wanna get out of this dump at some point before I dieee of boredom). Shes acting like that in this scene. Adora was missing for hours, shadow weaver was breathing down her neck and threatening her, she was already worried adora might have left at this point. she cant let adora know how worried she was tho, so shes all jokes and fast paced conversation. To Adora, tho, it just looks like catra doesnt care, like she doesnt understand the gravity of the situation.
and the other thing is that honestly? I dont think catra does care. about the town, i mean. i think catra was ready for war in a way adora never was. theyre both seeing combat for the first time here, and adora hates it. training for war is completely different than being in the battlefield, and adora couldnt handle it. face to face with it she couldnt tolerate seeing people suffering and dying, houses being burned down, a whole village destroyed. when the horde brainwashed adora into thinking they were only doing the necessary to save etheria, she completely and fully believed it, and when faced with the reality of the horde she immediately realized how wrong that was. Catra, tho, could not care less. she never believed in what the horde said, she knew full well what the horde did, so this isnt a surprise for her. and i do think shes naturally a bit sadistic, or at least growing up among the violence of the horde made her so. either way, shes seeing battle here for the first time and shes completely fine with it. doesnt even spare it all a second glance. why would she care about these people she never met if the most important thing in the world is right here in front of her? (i think even if adora hadnt left that night and went into the battlefield as a force captain, she wouldve ended up deserting. she cant stand seeing people suffer and she cant stand not saving them. shes too good, too selfless for that. catra isnt.) (also she is so ready to kill at all times. she loves violence. i once saw someone say how shadow weaver thought adora was the "cutthroat, ruthless warrior” when that was actually catra and they were totally right)
adora is also trying something futile here, she doesnt need to explain to catra that the horde is bad and hurts innocent ppl because catra has known that all her life
Adora: Catra, no. I can’t go back. Not until the Horde leaves this town alone. You have to help me.
Catra: What are you saying?
Adora: I’m saying, this is wrong. They’ve been lying to us, manipulating us. Hordak, Shadow Weaver, all of them.
Catra: Duh! Did ya just figure that out? Manipulation is Shadow Weaver’s whole thing. She’s been messing with our heads since we were kids.
(the captions in the pics are slightly wrong, nvm that.) everything i said before. adora just realized all of this, while catra has always known, probably because the abuse adora suffered was more manipulation-and-brainwashing, while shadow weaver always made clear to catra that she didnt give a shit about her, so she suffered physical abuse with little attempt to convince her this was fine.
the “what are you saying?” is one of the things that show how different their perspective is. adora is talking about going against the horde and helping the town, while catra immediately gets more personal. what do you mean? are you saying that you might leave the horde? leave me?
Adora: How could you possibly be okay with that?
adora means, how could you be ok with the horde lying about its actions, and killing innocent people? how could you be ok with the horde raising us to do the same? and catra hears, how could you be ok with shadow weaver and hordak abusing us?
Catra: Because, it doesn’t matter what they do. The two of us look out for each other. And soon we’ll be calling the shots. Now come on, can we go home already?
catra replies: because, i love you. because you have my back and i have yours. because nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other, remember? and soon enough, we’ll be powerful enough that they cant hurt us anymore. Adora hears, because i dont care about these people dying, the only thing thats important is you and i. and anyways, soon its gonna be Us killing them, isnt that good? lets go back home to the evil murder place.
Adora: I’m not going home, Catra. I can’t. Not after everything I’ve seen. Come with me. You don’t haveto go back there. We can fix this.
adora says: im starting to realize now how wrong i was about everything. we’re not the good guys, and i cant stand for that. i cant stand around and watch people get hurt. i cant stand around and watch you get hurt. lets leave, together, and have a better life, please. lets do the right thing.
Catra: Are you kidding? You’ve known these people for, what, a couple of hours? And now you’re just gonna throw everything away for them?
catra hears, shes willing to leave me. after everything i did for her, all that i took, all of these years of us being together, she would still leave me. she would break our promise. she would leave me behind.
and then she straight up electrocutes adora. ok
she says it was a reflex, but i dont know if i believe her. i dont think she likes hurting adora (not physically. not by this point, anyways), but i do think that shes the type to lash out when upset and immediately regret it, then feel guily about it. which just makes her more upset. :(
Catra: Oh, man. That was a lot stronger than I thought. Are you okay?
Adora: Why are you doing this?
Catra: Because you left me! And if I don’t bring you back, Shadow Weaver’s gonna have my head. So, enough with your weird little identity crisis and let’s go home already. Or do I need to zap you again?
thats the last time they talk. adora gets teleported away by glimmer, and when they see each other again, its clear that they both made their choice.
the moment adora showed catra she was willing to leave her, there was no coming back for them. because catra would never get over that. she’d spend all her life in that hellscape, putting up with abuse and bullying and probably so much more we dont get to see, because of the promise adora made her. and, in her eyes, adora was ready to leave her on the first opportunity that came up. that hurt. that broke her. and that released something really ugly inside of her.
cue in 2,5 years of homoerotic rivalry and trauma. ok post over if you read this i hope you liked it <3 bye
i’m grateful someone actually analyzed this and wrote what i lost someone else having said about this scene a long time ago, which is the truth of their miscommunication, rather than falsely writing this off as “don’t you see? catra was offered the chance to leave and refused, so her feelings of abandonment that fester into motivation throughout the show make no sense and she threw her own pity party based on nothing!” because that might be how it appears on a surface level, but it’s hard to understand someone who’s speaking a different language, and relationships get messy when they can’t harmonize.
I’m making every ep into a separate post and just making season-specific tags bc otherwise the og post would turn into “do u like the color of the sky” and nobody wants that.
I love the series-long payoff of finally talking to this hologram properly on failsafe. Is this room the crystal castle main chambers? I feel like I don’t remember seeing the giant she-ra mural but I might be wrong and it’s the same room Adora always goes to when training.
Ughhhhhhh mannnnnnnn it’s just watching Adora at her first party is so sad bc she gets to be an actual kid for the first time ever. Catra should’ve gone with herrrrr waaaa I know we wouldn’t have a show but waaaaaa
LIKE DUDE THE SECOND CATRA SEES ADORA AGAIN SHE POUNCES ON HER AND STRADDLES HER AND PURRS ARE U KIDDING ME SHE LOVES ADORA SO MUCH
SC = 3
RAHHH the mocking “what are you wearing?” And Adora throwing the flower she was wearing to the floor bc it’s a symbol of softness and vulnerability and they can’t that with each other yet.
Oh I’m going to bite my arm off actually. The LOOK on Catra’s face when Adora says “they’ve been lying to us, manipulating us” she looks so freaking HURT. She’s like “YEAH DUDE IVE BEEN PHYSICALLY ABUSED IN FRONT OF YOU MULTIPLE TIMES LIKE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT”
idk I used to really not understand why Catra didn’t go with Adora here but now that I have a deeper understanding of the show I totally get it. Dude this is the moment Catra really internalizes that Adora thinks that some of her mistreatment was warranted. Like the fact that Adora leaves bc the horde is hurting civilians but not Catra must have destroyed her. And like I GET IT. BC ADORA HAS BEEN MANIPULATED HER WHOLE LIFE BUT LIKE AAAA SHE’S ACTUALLY SO UNEMPATHETIC IN THIS MOMENT TOWARDS CATRA. And it’s cuz Catra doesn’t give a shit about the civilians so Adora feels hurt by that too bc “how can Catra not care about this?” and she’s in shock and her entire life is falling apart in front of her and like I get it but NGHHH this whole interaction once u understand the characters is UGH.
This post is an incredible breakdown of their miscommunication here, they are both understanding very different things from what the other person is saying.
“Why are you doing this?”
RAAAA RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
I want to talk a second about how BPD coded Catra is, specifically in this moment (although there are many great examples later).
With BPD, there is no sense of identity, that is like, one of the main symptoms of the personality disorder, so it makes sense that for Catra, I’m leaving the Horde = I am leaving YOU. Catra reacts so intensely bc she’s conflagrating both the horde and her. And from her POV it also makes sense bc it was Catra that went to find Adora, not the other way around. We know from promise, this is something that Catra feels resentful about too.
I also find Catra’s reaction really interesting because it’s one of the only times Catra physically hurts Adora as Adora and not She-Ra. There is no distinction to cognitively hide behind here. She immediately jumps to hurting Adora when she feels that perceived abandonment and then immediately feels guilty, but will do it again to not be abandoned by her once more. And it’s also coupled with the fact that there is the fear of abuse from Shadow Weaver if she doesn’t bring Adora home too. It just shows how poor her impulse control is when it comes to her splitting and idealization/devaluing symptoms.
Love this pose, love the hiss. I just appreciate when voice actors who are portraying anthropomorphic characters SOUND like the species they’re portraying. S1 Catra means everything to me bc she has the most cat-like behaviors in the show. As she grows, she tries to hide those behaviors and try to act more human-like, esp when S4 rolls around.
Glimmer saying “We need you, we need she-ra” ope I’m sure that phrase won’t add to Adora’s hero complex !!!!!!!!!!!!
God and the way Adora can’t talk to anybody about missing Catra bc everyone in the rebellion (rightfully) hates her. She just has to pretend that she doesn’t care at all about losing her best friend and home. Rewatching the show makes me realize just how fast Adora erases herself and becomes She-Ra basically full time to the point that ppl don’t call her Adora, they call her She-Ra. And it’s cause she has no idea how to deal with emotions, so she just shoves all of that grief aside and buries it in all of her new duties and responsibilities.
Though eventually it must grow too boring for her. For Chasm. Because
soon enough, Chasm is preparing to stand, humming as she rises to her
feet—the movement smooth as silk and not at all Adora. She even
runs a hand through Adora’s hair as she reaches full height, shaking
out the strands like they belong to her, and always have.
