catradora nation how we doing??

Which then culminates in Glimmer basically giving Adora away like it’s her and Catra’s wedding or whatever. 

“Take care of her, Horde Scum.”

she didn't take on the mantle of she ra because of the power, she took it on because she felt she didn't have much other choice. it was the only way to protect the people around her, so she accepts it and does her best to roll with it. and she does ok. like, genuinely, she plays the hero role well. but you see the cracks in the facade every time catra plays a stake in the game. because her role as a hero couldn't protect or save the person she loves most, and there are so many times you can see that she wishes she wishes she could just toss it all aside and be with catra the way she wants to be. adora’s perfect world was one where she never had to leave catra. not one where there was no war, no pain or hurt, just one where she was with catra.

and it's these seeds of selfishness growing beneath her horrible self sacrificial tendencies that makes adora such an unconventional and complex “hero”. when adora learns that destiny as a ‘hero’ was to be a weapon she rejects it outright. destroys it. demolishes it. the only way we see her finally molding her own role for herself is when she gets to be selfish! holding up that passageway and making the star siblings wait as the walls caved in on them so glimmer and bow could escape was selfish, and that's the first time we get to see adoras true version of she ra peek out. going back to save catra and asking everybody else to risk their lives for that vendetta was selfish, and THAT'S the first time we get to see adoras true version of she ra come out completely.

in becoming her own hero, adora takes the whole concept of what being a hero is and knocks it on its ass. in morphing her image and path as etheria’s hero, she actively makes choices that are the antithesis of what a hero is typically thought to be, because she never wanted it in the first place. the fact that she saves the day by allowing herself to finally want and be wanted and let herself have something in the place of sacrificing herself and everything she is, it speaks so well to who she actually is inside. yes, she is a person who wants to love and wants to protect, but it was never because she saw herself above it all. she never wanted to be a hero. she never wanted to be held above anyone or anything else.