ᱬ PinkStorm

Of Wing & Claw

Defiance CH 115: Welcome to Salineas

Adora arrives in Salineas to find the war and a surprising new ally. Glimmer arrives in Salineas to discover her own growing reputation, a political disaster, more proof Adora is a menace - And the Far Sea Traders are going to be more of a problem than they knew.

Whelp. Here we are. Salineas. This is the prelude to the end. I cannot predict how long this sequence will be, but I can tell you that Salineas is going to be as political as it is violence. The rage of war and the quiet desperation of negotiations are going to wreak havoc.

But Salineas is only the beginning. Because after Salineas - and a look into the Horde alongside visiting the chaos of Halfmoon - we enter into the final story for Arc II. And as I have promised, the end of Arc II is the reunion.

the Best Friend Square

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Well, at least it gives me fodder! Thank you for your service c:

Now, there's not a whole lot here (OP was blessedly brief), but there's enough to foster an interesting discussion of some aspects of Hordak's character. So let's do so!

I literally cannot stand the idea of Hordak just roaming free in Etheria after season 5 like. Can we not have this horrible person who terrorized a planet for decades and raised an army of child soldiers just...hanging out?

This concept has always and will always be so bizarre to me. So many Hordak antis seem to be under this weird impression that, post-canon, Hordak is just going to be... I dunno... chilling? Doing whatever? Facing no repercussions and no consequences and just... scott-free.

Which is absurd.

If Hordak decides to stay on Etheria, then there's just going to be everything to deal with. The Etherians that fear and hate him. The Princesses who do likewise. Catra, whom he has this terribly fraught relationship with. All of his brothers, who aren't likely to react well to him given the fact that he killed Prime - not to mention the whole "defect" situation.

This idea that he's going to just be roaming free, not a care in the world, is ludicrous.

And y'know, Etherians and other clones aside: there's still himself to deal with. There's his new-found freedom - true freedom, out from under Prime's shadow - and what, exactly, he's supposed to do with it. There's coming to terms with the pointlessness of the last few decades: the fact that he spent years and years sowing destruction and pain in an attempt to win love from a loveless slavemaster. The shame of it. The wasted time and energy and just... wellbeing. There's dealing with his chronic illness; Hordak still has to learn to, if not love himself, at least accept himself with all physical issues involved. He needs to learn true self-care.

There's coming to terms with how he was manipulated time and again: by Prime, by Catra.

There's navigating his relationship with Entrapta, something clearly new to both of them, while dealing with the horrific trauma of what he suffered at Prime's hands.

There's just... there's so much. The show ends on a high note, but its end is truly just a beginning for so many characters, Hordak especially. And that beginning kicks off a whole slew of difficult emotions and relationships and severe trauma that must be worked through.

"Hanging out." Psh.

Hordak isn't going to be "hanging out." He's going to be going through the sort of physical, mental, and emotional recovery that is nigh unimaginable. He is going to be dealing with political and personal hardships that are a trauma in and of themselves.

He is going to need so many blankets.

Oh! And as a brief aside:

"Hordak" did not terrorize a planet and raise child soldiers (a debatable term, but I'll let it slide today). The Etherian Horde did.

Y'know. The Etherian Horde made of native Etherians. Not brainwashed. Not chipped. Not indoctrinated into some sinister cult-religion. All with free will intact. Many with their own agendas and plots and schemes that went directly against Hordak's own desires.

Let's not pretend like the Etherian War was Hordak vs. the Free Peoples of Etheria, or whatever.

It was the Etherian Horde Made Up of Etherians Angry About Something vs. Princess Etherians and Their Buddies, guest-starring A Lost, Sickly, Tragically Devout Clone Desperately in Need of a Hug.

And before you bring up Catra, 1. She was only in power for 3 years and more importantly

Y'know, I always tell myself I'm not going to go into Catra's negatives on these posts, but here we are. OP had to open the door.

So. Catra was only in power for three years, yeah? Isn't it interesting how they're the three most destructive years of the war? Like, things have been at essentially a standstill; the Etherian Horde and the various kingdoms have been holding the status quo for years. Then Catra comes along and all hell breaks loose.

Suddenly the Horde is doing severe damage to the Alliance. Salineas falls.

And hey, things are getting worse within the Horde, too! Teams are being stripped down to skeleton crews, resulting in the exhaustion and injury of Horde soldiers at the hands of the Princesses. Squads are worked to the bone: we see the effects firsthand through the Horde Trio. Said Horde Trio, by the by, leaves the Horde. They look at their new lives under Catra and judge them worse than what they were under Hordak. And they skedaddle. Y'know: these apparently "brainwashed" child soldiers just up and decide that Catra is a shit boss and leave for greener pastures. That is a thing that happens.

2. She sacrificed her life for Adora, and then literally saved the universe with her.

This can handily be negated by pointing out that, a season prior, Catra effectively destroyed the entire world and necessitated the sacrifice of Angella to save it. Murdered everyone on Etheria via portal to... *looks at notes* ...ensure that Adora did not win. Y'know. This moment:

So. Sure. She helped save the world. Only after causing the death of Glimmer's mother out of what was more-or-less spite.

1(save the world) - 1(destroy the world out of spite) = 0

The math checks out!

Hordak meanwhile said “fuck you prime you meanie :(“ and accomplished absolutely nothing.

It is mystifying to me how people don't understand the enormity of what Hordak did.

For one thing, the practical aspect of it: Hordak (a) killed Prime's main host body AKA the body that could possess other bodies and sashay through the hivemind, and he (b) brought Prime down to Etheria where Adora could end him.

What do y'all think would have happened if Prime's vessel hadn't been killed?

He'd have had no reason to go down to Etheria's surface because he'd have been able to continue manipulating the Heart from the Velvet Glove.

Killing Prime's body forced him to the surface where he was vulnerable to She-Ra. Without that all-important step, the battle very well could have gone very differently. Without that step, Horde Prime could have simply escaped, perpetuating the cycle.

But let's put the practicality of it aside because, while it is important, it's not what I find most meaningful.

What is meaningful is what this meant for Hordak.

I mean... golly gosh, do people still not understand what Prime was to Hordak? To all of the clones? It's been, what, almost two years since the finale?

Prime wasn't their military commander. He wasn't their king or emperor or whatever.

He was their god. Their horrifically abusive god.

He made them. He could read and control them on a whim. He used their life force and their bodies as his own. He could erase their very minds, alter their memories, reprogram them any which-way. Whenever he wanted. However he wanted. And they could not stop him.

and it accomplished absolutely nothing.

Ignorant falsehood aside, does OP not understand the significance of this? Hordak, finally come back to himself, finally ready to make his first real choice and claim his own independent life, can do nothing while Prime possesses him.

That is how powerful Prime was. That is how helpless, how hopelessly powerless, the clones were to him.

And Hordak stood against that!

He knew what Prime could do to him. He knew the sort of power Prime possessed. He knew that Prime could kill him with nary a thought, and yet he stood for himself and for Entrapta anyway.

The level of bravery and love and just... incredible personal strength that this took is outstanding!

What Hordak did was look into the eyes of god and say "not today." Even knowing that it was likely futile. Even knowing that god could snap his fingers and end him. Hordak did that because he loved Entrapta and valued her life and his own personhood more than he feared and loved Prime.

That's fantastic.

Anyway. Am I done? I think I'm done.

The point is: no one has to like Hordak. Just like no one has to like Catra. Or *shudder* Sea Hawk. But the absurd simplification and dismissal of a wonderful arc and an incredibly complex character (especially for being, what, tertiary?) does the story a disservice. And dismisses fans who resonate with the themes of personhood, self-loathing, abuse, disability, and religious trauma being explored.

And I mean, I've written before about why I find Hordak far more sympathetic than I find the Princesses, but this isn't that. This is more... A disconnect. Between how people seem to view Hordak and the Horde and my personal understanding of oppression. Namely: the sort of "usual" social hierarchy of oppressed and oppressor don't seem to work here.

The patterns don't coincide.

When we look at our world, our societies, social power tends to be divided by wealth. Now, of course race and religion and gender and all of these other factors come into play, but financial resources hold tremendous importance. Members of oppressed minorities are more likely, statistically, to hold less wealth. Not always, obviously. There are no hard rules. But enough that it comes out in data.

And even in societal majorities, there is still the divide between those that hold great wealth, and those that do not.

My point being as follows: the members of the "upper class" tend to be oppressive because they have the financial means with which to exert control. Politically, economically, whatever. They are the ones oppressing, while the "lower class," the working class, tend to suffer under their wants and whims. It's an oversimplication, to be sure, but the general sense of it is all that matters for this discussion.

Essentially: the upper class oppresses the working class. The working class doesn't oppress the upper class.

So!

When we look at Hordak and the Etherian Horde, and when we look at the Alliance... who is working class, and who lives in absolute luxury?

Our protagonists are literal monarchs living in literal palaces with literal magic powers. They don't perform physical labor. They don't have "jobs" in the sense of earning money or earning their keep. And even during supposed wartime, they enjoy plentiful resources and delicious food and pointless luxuries.

The level of luxury is even played for laughs, sort of, when Adora first joins the Horde and has no idea how to live in a room that appears designed around impractical pampering.

But it also just kind of... borders on ridiculous? Like...they go to a magical floating island to relax at a spa. On a cloud beach. During a major war that we are supposed to believe they are suffering tremendously from. We're supposed to feel sad for them. While they're lounging on the cloud beach.

It's... hm.

Compare this to the Etherian Horde. And to Hordak himself.

There are no fancy rooms with decorative waterfalls in the Horde. Not for regular Horde members, not even for higher-ranking individuals.

The members of the Etherian Horde absolutely perform physical labor. They have few, if any, luxuries to speak of. Their entire lives appear to consist of working to earn and maintain their place in the Horde. And there are absolutely no spa days.

As for Hordak? Well, you might say: "CF, Hordak is in an upper class position; he calls himself Lord and sits on a throne and-"

And I'm gonna stop you right there, because Hordak is a purpose-bred slave play-acting a god-monarch to earn back his place as a purpose-bred slave. He and his clone brothers are actual servants of Prime: made to do everything from cleaning to serving meals to fighting on the front lines of Prime's wars. They are true, all-around workers.

Actually, the little details regarding Hordak and "work" are so interesting. Because he absolutely works, in a way that the protagonists really don't seem to: with little to no visible time for relaxation and absolute zero indulgence in luxury. We so often see him in his lab, working with tools, with his hands. And after Entrapta makes him his new armor, we see him using it to perform significant physical labor. Labor that, as "lord," he could likely have delegated to others. But he didn't. Because Hordak, at his core, is a worker.

Now, does he have a throne? Sure! But it's a throne designed to be a tool, a prop of sorts to help him mimic Prime. It's not an actual piece of comfortable furniture. And it's not somewhere where Hordak appears comfortable or leisurely. It's just... a tool of the job. I mean... just look at how he sits in it, compared to Prime. Prime, who is absolutely "upper class" and has all of the fanciness to show for it. Prime who just lounges on his throne, secure in the knowledge that he belongs there.

And beyond the throne, in his Sanctum? Not a drop of luxury to be found. Just machinery for Hordak's work. And tools for his work. And a bunch of junk, because he's pathologically unable to throw anything away for Personal Reasons. Totally unlike, say, Glimmer's room. Or Prime's trophy and dining rooms. We don't even see a place for him to rest from his work, though extrapolating from the pods we see other clones in, we can guess that it's likely not a soft, fluffy, copiously-pillowed bed.

Because that's the thing about Hordak: he's the leader of the Horde, but he's still a member of the working class. He's play-acting a lord, but he doesn't actually enjoy any of the leisure or luxury that comes with that. Rather, despite his position in the Etherian Horde hierarchy, he has far more in common with his own cadets than with his hierarchical equals in Bright Moon.

Which is why the patterning for oppression is so off, for me. People are trying to convince me that a bunch of working class people, including potential orphans and an actual cult-slave, are oppressing the wealthy royals? It just. Doesn't compute. Like... even when Mermista's capital city is destroyed, she still has the means to lounge about in a fancy bathtub, eating ice cream. It just doesn't carry the same weight as, say, Hordak sitting amongst the trash-wreckage of his Sanctum in season four. Mermista is upset, but she's still pampered. Hordak is upset, and he's just... upset. With nothing comforting to help him.

It's just such a disconnect. I can't view the protagonists as "oppressed" when they have the means and resources to essentially avoid any true fallout from the war. While Hordak and his subordinates, supposedly dominant and oppressive, live in spartan quarters devoid of even the slightest shred of opulence or comfort.

Perhaps the series could have circumvented this if it had made our protagonists members of Etheria's less-royal population? Or if it had portrayed them as true refugees, as they are under Prime's aggression in season five. But it doesn't. It has them hanging out in palaces, going to parties and spas, eating sleep-over cake while Hordak gets injured by his glitchy health-care machine because he doesn't have anything better.

by Hayden Williams

PRINCESS TIANA ✨ 🐸 👑

16 years ago, #ThePrincessAndTheFrog was released & debuted #Disney ‘s first & only black #DisneyPrincess so far.

Now that we’ve had some time to digest season 2, I wanna take an in-depth look at some of the new relationships and group dynamics that have popped up in the show. Specifically, seeing Catra interact with Bow and Glimmer was something I’ve been excited about for a really long time, and then of course there’s Scorpia, and wow do i have THOUGHTS alright here we go

Catra and Bow

i know, weird right. there’s a reason i’m writing about these two first and it’s because i have a lot of feelings lajksdfd just hear me out okay

Idk about you guys, but when I was watching Catra attack Bow in 2x02 it just felt so weird, like in a bad way. Catra’s anger towards him for stealing Adora away is obviously valid, but Bow is just so pure and righteous and good, you know? He doesn’t have a bitter bone in his body (unlike Glimmer, who can give as good as she gets). Bow doesn’t know how to respond to Catra’s anger… and I think the reason that it was so hard for me to watch is because Catra and Bow actually have the potential to be good friends.

Think about it like this. Catra and Glimmer are a lot alike–they’re fierce and intense and they each have someone who helps bring them back down to earth: their respective best friends, Adora and Bow! And we see how much Adora and Glimmer have grown to love one another, right? It’s because their different personalities complement each other so well…. So I think that, given the chance, Catra and Bow could have a similar dynamic :)

There was a sweet moment in 2x02 that offered a glimpse of this, when Bow was trying to show Catra some kindness. He’s such an earnest, straight forward character, he sees right through Catra’s bullshit and knows exactly what to say to get through to her (i mean look at her expression here, the way her ears are flattened–so different from her absurd behavior in the rest of the episode).

Lock these two in a room for an hour? Yeah, they’d come out best friends 😭💖 I hope we get more of them in future episodes!! 

Catra and Glimmer

Oh man…… Whew. YIKES. Where to even begin with this alsjdfsdjld. Catra and Glimmer’s rivalry is just. everything. 

To Glimmer, Catra is the girl who is trying to destroy her home, murder her and her loves ones… the girl who’s breaking the heart of someone she loves (Adora).

To Catra, Glimmer is the girl who stole Adora away from her. She tore her life apart. She represents what it means to be born into a position of privilege and (literal) power, which Catra resents with a burning passion.

Seeing these two go head to head, sparring physically and verbally, it’s so freaking delicious. Catra has the advantage over her in almost every way: she’s a better fighter, she lies and manipulates, she’s willing to do evil things to win battles that Glimmer, as a typical hero, refuses to do. But despite all that, Glimmer still wins every time… Because she has Adora.

It’s interesting, though. Even though Adora is on Glimmer’s team, Catra knows that she is the one who holds Adora’s attention, if not also her affections–and she knows this fact drives Glimmer crazy. I mean come on, Adora means everything to Glimmer! She loves her as a friend but more than that, She-Ra gives her hope that they can save the world. Yet Adora loves this feral half-cat demon over her?? what???? lmao. So I think part of what’s fueling Glimmer’s hatred, her desire to just beat the absolute shit out of Catra, is that she feels like she’s contending for Adora’s love.

There were four glitra moments this season that I wanna highlight.

First, when Catra tries to get in her head and make her doubt her relationship with Adora. I found this interesting because you almost see a glimpse of sincerity in Catra–as if she’s trying to warn Glimmer against repeating the mistake she herself made. Glimmer’s reaction to the words are just as telling. She gets angry, but I don’t think it’s because she believes Catra. I think she’s angry because Catra is slandering Adora’s character. Unlike Catra right now, Glimmer sees Adora for who she truly is. She knows that Adora isn’t the kind of person who abandons her friends in pursuit of power. So yeah this was a cool moment that illustrated Glimmer and Catra’s contrasting perspectives.

Second, I LOVED this line, when Catra makes fun of Glimmer and Adora’s relationship (but it just comes off as jealous lmaoo). The reason I love it is because it’s so true!!! Glimmer and Adora are perfect for each other. What this line proves is that she is absolutely threatened by Glimmer in a romantic context. She recognizes that Glimmer might actually be more compatible for Adora than she is, and that Glimmer is her foil (which I’ll explain more in a minute).

Next is the scene where Glimmer actually threatens to kill Catra in cold blood. If you’re like me and you missed that when you first watched it, yeah, that’s what happened–Catra gives Kyle the order to “take Entrapta out” and then Glimmer slams her against the tree and says “two can play at that game.” She gets this close to blasting her face off but Bow is able to talk her down from it. And the whole time, Catra is just fucking smirking at her, calling her bluff because she knows Glimmer won’t compromise her morals (parallel to catradora in 2x05 anyone??). But yeah this was crazy. Catra just wanted to see how far she could push her and it turns out… pretty damn far. 

One of my favorite lines in the whole season was Glimmer telling Catra “I’m not as naive as you think.” Catra thought she had her outsmarted, forced to deplete her magic, but in the end Catra had underestimated her as an adversary.

The more I think about it, the more I realize Glitra’s rivalry is a hundred times more intense than Catradora’s. Remember in the DnD ep when femme fatale Catra points at Glimmer and calls her her greatest enemy? That was veeery interesting… Their relationship really has a life of it’s own now, like, separate from Adora. They hate everything about what each other stand for. They’re both so strong and hot-headed, with opposite moral compasses–like two rockets on a collision course. But I also love that they have this sort of begrudging respect for one another. Look at what Glimmer says here in 2x03, the ghost episode:

How random, right, that Glimmer would be thinking about some offhand comment from Catra from the previous episode? AND! In context, it just sounded to me like Catra was saying Glimmer was terrible at taking people hostage lol. Glimmer extrapolates and applies her comment to her courage, her capability as a hero. That’s like…. whoa. It shows that Glimmer actually cares about Catra’s opinion of her.

So yeah Glitra’s dynamic is more amazing than i could’ve ever dreamed.. not to mention their weird flirtation and oh no looks like we’re out of time for this section kjdfljsdkaskjd

Adora and Scorpia

Ok seeing these two dorks together in 2x05 was so amazing 😂😂 As cute as it was though it was one of the most heartbreaking parts of the season. I can’t remember a time that Scorpia ever demonstrated such bitterness towards someone.

Not exaggerating when I say that last line brought me to tears like wtf…. 😭

I’ve mentioned this before but Scorpia genuinely loves Catra so much and she just can’t stand seeing her heart breaking over Adora when Scorpia feels like she could treat Catra better. She’d give her the whole world if she could (which is quite literally what she’s trying to achieve!)

Adora, on the other hand, she doesn’t really know who Scorpia is. To her, Scorpia is just someone who is enabling Catra’s descent into darkness, so there is a hostility there already. If I had to name one thing that I’m excited about for upcoming episodes, it would be Adora inevitably growing jealous of Catra and Scorpia’s relationship. We haven’t seen it yet but mark my words we WILL AND ITS GONNA FUCKING DESTROY US okay i could yell about adora and scorpia for hours but let’s just move on and get to my fave part of this meta laksjdfs

Catra vs. Glimmer, and Adora vs. Scorpia

So Catra and Glimmer rivalry’s is obviously really fun, same with Adora and Scorpia. But the real magic comes in when we look at the dynamic of this whole 4-person group. I didn’t take Scortra seriously in season 1 (blasphemy… i know) so it took me until season 2 to catch onto this pattern, but now that I have it makes so much sense and gives the show a new perspective for me. 

Glimmer and Scorpia’s relationship hasn’t really been explored in the show but there is one thing we know they have in common: they both love two girls who are obsessed with someone else. And they both act as foils for our two protagonists. 

Glimmer is Catra’s foil. The similarities between these two are obvious. They’re both passionate and angry and driven and traumatized. But Glimmer’s strong moral code contrasts sharply with Catra’s lack of one (and really that difference is just a result of their disparate upbringings). 

Glimmer is right in front of Adora. And she’s everything that Adora only wishes Catra could be… yet Glimmer will never be able to compete with Catra in the contest for Adora’s affection. Adora is stuck between loving someone that she can’t be with, or being with someone she can’t truly love… at least, not in the same soul-altering way that she loves Catra.

Scorpia is Adora’s foil. Scorpia and Adora are also alike in some ways, but there’s a key difference. The fandom has discussed before how, yeah, Scorpia is part of the Horde, but she doesn’t appear to have any kind of moral stake in the war that’s going on. What Scorpia really cares about, what she’ll fight to the death for is… her friendships. She’s loyal to a fault, and she would do absolutely anything for Catra. Catra is her number one priority. 

GUYS! This is the exact opposite of Adora!! Adora may love Catra, but she will always choose the greater good over her. She won’t betray her convictions for love. That’s just who she is. Thus, Scorpia is everything that Catra wishes Adora would have been for her. Someone who would have stayed by her side no matter what. Someone who wouldn’t have cared whether or not the Horde was evil, as long as she could be with Catra. But again–though I do think Scortra’s budding romance will continue to develop–in the end Scorpia simply cannot compete with Adora for Catra’s affection. She acknowledged it herself. 

I wanna mention one more thing here.. So Scorpia and Glimmer are playing similar roles for their respective love interests. From my point of view (feel free to disagree this is just the way I’m interpreting things) I don’t believe that those relationships are gonna be endgame. To me this show always has been and always will be about Catra and Adora. And while I can’t wait to see them reconcile with each other, Noelle has suddenly got me falling in love with these other characters, too, and I’m so afraid??? ESPECIALLY for Scorpia. While Glimmer at least has Bow and the Princess Alliance, Scorpia has absolutely no one. Catra is Scorpia’s whole world. What will she do when that falls apart? (god please i’m begging, just let scorpia find happiness 😭)

Catra and Scorpia

Honestly I don’t even think I can write this part without having a meltdown but its the last one so im gonna push through alksjdfls. I already talked a bit about how Scorpia is exactly the kind of person that Catra needs at this point in her life, and I think it’s best summed up in this quote from Noelle:

“We see Scorpia expressing this admiration for Catra, expressing desire to get close to Catra… Catra is just not at this point super open to Scorpia’s affection. So I think it’s kind of tragic at this point. And I think for Catra, although she’ll never admit it, what she really wants is love and acceptance. Suddenly she is getting that, no strings attached, from Scorpia, and she is not ready.”

-wiping away tears- okay so yeah, Scorpia is over here offering Catra unconditional love and Catra’s just…. she’s so traumatized and has such deep-seated abandonment issues that she just doesn’t know what to do with it. She doesn’t feel she deserves it. Also, up until 2x05, Catra didn’t respect Scorpia much at all and definitely did not see her in a romantic light. But I have a theory on why that changed. 

For much of her life, I think the Horde taught Catra to associate love with blind loyalty and submission. Now, she is starting to question this belief. She thought Adora loved her, but Adora ended up being disloyal. She thought she could earn Shadow Weaver’s love by submitting to her, but Shadow Weaver continues to prove her wrong. So what is love, exactly? What is an expression of love? Catra’s not sure anymore.

When Scorpia defies Catra’s orders in 2x05–she destroys the First Ones disc, lets Adora escape, fucks up Catra’s plan–Catra is completely thrown. In the animation alone, you can see they’re trying to convey that Catra is seeing Scorpia in a way she never has before.

It’s precisely because Scorpia defied her and chose not to blindly submit to her, that Catra is still alive. It’s the first time that Scorpia went against Catra’s wishes in a big way. And I think this moment shook Catra to her core because it made her question what love is truly about. Like maybe Scorpia understands something that she doesn’t.

We see this again in episode 2x07, where she’s stressed out about Shadow Weaver and yelling at Scorpia to just obey her orders but Scorpia isn’t having it. And in that we see a special trust developing between them. Even when Catra’s being a dick to her, denying that they’re friends, saying things like “get used to not getting what you want in life…” Scorpia stays by her side and refuses to be discouraged. and I think that really is something that’s going to leave a huge impact on Catra. Scorpia is no longer just a tool for Catra to manipulate–she has come to seriously rely on her without realizing it.

Still, Catra doesn’t seem quite capable of understanding what a beautiful friend she has in Scorpia. and I’m afraid (predicting) that she might take it too far one day, and figure out the hard way exactly how much she had to lose. But that tragedy may also turn out to be her saving grace ✨