proud hater

i think that seeing catra trying to end the world via the portal as a suicide attempt is valid and i won’t really criticise or critique that. we all have our interpretations of media and all are valid in their own ways. that being said, claiming that opening the portal was a suicide attempt and therefore it exempts catra from being held responsible for those actions is just... kinda not it?

like yes, there is nuance to the situation, especially as you read it as an attempt, and you can claim that catra was only thinking of her own wants in that moment. that’s valid and i’d agree if i read the portal scene through the same lens. 

but the fact remains that catra opened that portal with multiple intentions. there is a reason why she smirks at adora when she pulls the trigger and how she attempts to gaslight adora into believing the alternate reality is their reality. 

she might have just been trying to grasp some semblance of happiness but that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t be held accountable in some capacity. she’s the reason prime found their world, she’s the reason why glimmer’s mother died, and she almost killed many other people in the process. 

Hi! I'm rather inactive on this blog now but thank you for the message!

The thing is, this has been a defense that Catra stans use constantly. It is one of the things that us in the spop critical side have had to contend with since the show was airing. The simple belief that because Catra is an abuse victim it means that she can't be criticized for being a bad person and if she is being criticized, the people doing it are ableist and we don't care about abuse victims.

And the funniest part of all of this? People who tend to criticize Catra and Catradora are people who are abuse survivors, who have mental health problems similar to or the same as the ones Catra is labelled with. We're people who have had shitty friends and shitty lovers and been around people who act like Catra and who, just like her, somehow get away with it.

You are not ableist for calling Catra out or for stating that she had multiple chances to change. These are things that are backed up by the show; there are many times you could pause an episode and go hey, Catra should have done this or said this or choose not to do this.

If there is anything my time away from the fandom has shown me, it is that while we cannot change Catradora being canon, neither can they change the fact that Catra has been abusing Adora since the very first episode.

It does feel incredibly lonely to oppose such a popular ship, it feels like you're shouting into the void and when the void answers, it's to tell you that you are uncaring or that you're ableist when all we're really doing here is pointing out that, as it stands, Catra could not have been in a healthy relationship with Adora unless she learned from her past mistakes and made an attempt to be a better person.

So while I do think we have to consider a person's situation first before we go on to say that they could change/escape/redeem themselves, I really don't think it applies to s1-s4 Catra who, since the very first episode, had the opportunity to join Adora with the princesses and choose not to. Catra had many chances to go with Adora and while abusive situations are a lot more nuanced than just has an opportunity to leave > leaves, Catra was always intended to be Adora's romantic partner and the writers knew that. They could have chosen to let her join Adora far before the last season but they opted to make her violent instead.

Adora thinking and/or possibly having real feelings for C*tra and it’s her only experience with romantic love. C*tra is the same as she always was: a controlling bully who doesn’t like it when Adora has other friends or gets praise, so she lashes out. Adora thinks this is love because hey, her maternal figure Shadow Weaver treats her the same way and at the end of the day, she and C*tra are happy and they have future plans and they’re all each other has. There’s good in between the bad that makes it easy for Adora to forget about the bad. 

Then we get to the main timeline of the show. Adora finds the sword, she sees what the Horde is truly doing, and thinks screw this I want to get out of here. So she tries to convince C*tra to come with her but C*tra responds how she does in the show: she violently attacks Adora and threatens to drag her back.

And once the dust has cleared and C*tra is gone, Adora is left with her new allies: Glimmer and Bow. Adora is lost and uncertain and she isn’t sure where her place is in the world now that she’s She-Ra and she’s lost the safety of the Horde but Glimmer and Bow are nice to her. They invite her back to Glimmer’s home, they treat her nicely, and Adora finds herself in a constant mental battle of going “I wish C*tra was like this... wait no,I love her and don’t want her to change!”. 

But then, Adora finds herself enjoying the way Glimmer makes her feel. They become best friends and Glimmer provides Adora with strength she’s never had before. Glimmer supports her, believes in her, and most importantly, Glimmer doesn’t react with violence or harsh words when Adora is friends with someone else. 

Adora would battle with these feelings for the entirety of the show. They could be linked with her abilities as She-Ra too. She has feelings for C*tra, yes, but then she enjoys how it feels when she realises she doesn’t walk on eggshells around Glimmer, when she can laugh and have fun and there’s no worries. 

Of course, C*tra is still going down her path of villainy. She’s still abusing Adora and using her weaknesses against her at every chance she gets. This slowly opens Adora’s eyes — yes, C*tra loves her and yes, she loved C*tra but through the love she feels and experiences with Glimmer, she’s realising that love is about giving someone your weaknesses, about being vulnerable with them, and never once fearing that they’ll use that against you the way Adora fears that C*tra will.

This would all culminate in that “now live with it scene” in season three. Adora says exactly what she does then but means something else too. They’ve both made a choice. C*tra has chosen to be Adora’s enemy and Adora is choosing to let go on this love that had once felt like a security blanket but is now choking her. She lets C*tra go and chooses a love that makes her feel safe, appreciated, and strong. She chooses a love that has unwavering support in her, protects her, and does everything for her.

Glimmer and Adora can still have troubles in the next two seasons. It’s really hard to have your love epiphany on the same day that the person you love’s mother died.... so Adora is trying to navigate being in love with Glimmer while believing that Glimmer blames her for Angella’s death. Glimmer is struggling with her new role as queen and barely has the time to think about how she feels, nevermind address it — and of course, she has her insecurities about Adora’s relationship with C*tra to deal with.

But all of this would bring us to the flashforward scene. It would be a beautiful scene where Adora sees herself with Glimmer, they’re both happy, they’re holding hands. The war is over and they’re healing together. Glimmer begs Adora to come back to her, telling her that she’s always loved her — and this time, it’s something that we as the viewers can believe — and they kiss. They’re breathless and happy and Adora’s rambling about how she never thought Glimmer felt the same and Glimmer’s rambling about how she never thought Adora would choose her but she did.

Spop ends with them together, ready to step into their future together, and it ends on a much better note than the show did. There’s no weak apologies, no forgiving an abuser simply because she loves you, there’s no going back on all of the character development both Adora and C*tra made through four seasons. 

I definitely think it's extremely interesting to see how different groups of people who have different ideological views somehow manage to come together on a few things. Both conservatives and progressives defend bullies but can we say the former would defend Catra if they knew she was a lesbian character?

Yet your point stands all the same. One of the things I saw from Catra defenders would sometimes be rhetoric that's used by terfs when in fact the people who were defending Catra don't agree with terfs in the slightest (at least I hope not 😬) and yet the same excuses were used. Catra isn't capable of being abusive or doing x y and z thing because she's just a poor abused woman. You know what rhetoric I'm referring to.

Oddly enough, I've seen both groups of thinking from Catra defenders. I've seen people justify and also people de-justifying her behaviour. It’s almost like two opposing ideals that somehow form a harmony within the Catra and catradora defenders club. As long as we both know Catra couldn’t help herself and we ship catradora then it doesn’t matter what way the actions are excused!

I do think the crux of the problem with Catra defenders is that they see themselves in her but admitting that she's a bully/abuser means that either they have to admit something about themselves or admit people in their situation are capable of doing the same amount of harm that was done to them. As a result, they latch onto any and all reasons to either excuse or justify Catra's actions.

Admittedly it's very frustrating to see the word ableist slung around so much when trying to criticise Catra. As a neurodivergent person myself, the last thing I actively try to perpetuate is ableism. As someone with BPD too, it's crazy to me to think that I'm getting called ableist for stating that I don't think we should say that Catra opening a portal to destroy the world or trying to maim her love interest is something I want tied to BPD.

But that's how they see it. Catra defenders are desperate to justify away her actions in anyway possible, so they sink their claws into whatever reason or way of justification they like the most and simply don't let go.

Massively disgusting in fact. The way the fandom interacts with Entrapta as a whole is just so disgusting and infantilizing as if she's not a woman who is in her mid to late twenties, also a princess and capable of so much. This girl made a whole robot functional, she made a whole portal, she helped unchip the other characters and she did so much more and yet this fandom fails to see her as anything but quirky and childlike and someone who cannot possible be in a romantic relationship (unless it's with this specific person who literally leashed her hehe! /s)

Don't really expect much else from the fandom who seems to hyperfocus on the cat but it's so frustrating to watch an autistic character be rendered into whatever the fandom deems appropriate for her. This includes having her be treated as a child, not holding her accountable for her actions (side note I adore how Entrapta is a morally grey character! It's so cool!) and acting as though the allistic princesses putting her a leash is somehow okay.

It’s very interesting to see the extent in which they’ll keep throwing around catra’s (implied) bpd as a way to excuse her actions and it just... does not sit right with me in the slightest. 

I thought we all agreed that being mentally ill does not mean you can abuse people and get away with it? I thought we all agreed that having depression or ptsd or bpd are all ways to explaining the way someone might act, not excusing it. 

It really leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As someone who deals with bpd on a daily basis, I don’t want to be likened to a character who consistently abused and harmed her love interest, just to end up with her in the end because she said i love you. As someone with bpd who recognises their own actions and how their own way of thinking can hurt other people, I try everything in my power not to harm the people I love.

I can understand that the cat remaining in an abusive environment and feeling like she was abandoned can make it hard to begin healing but as someone who was and felt abandoned by someone they loved, for me it was a wake up call. And I wasn’t even given multiple offers to leave a shitty situation. 

If the cat has bpd, I don’t want the resolution to her arc being that she gets to be with the person she used and abused for years. If the cat has bpd, I also don’t want that to be the excuse used to justify her abuse. If the cat has bpd, I would have wanted her to recognise it, heal from it, and begin working on her toxic mindset. 

that being said, it’s not okay for the narrative, noelle, c/a stans, and other characters to blame adora for abandoning catra when that wasn’t what happened.

adora escaped from an abusive environment for her own mental health and safety. she asked catra to come with her. catra said no and refused to go with her. adora kept asking her to come with her and catra refused right up until season 5. 

what we as viewers saw play out was adora ask catra to come with her and catra saying no. that isn’t abandonment. that’s adora accepting what catra is telling her she wants because even with her she-ra powers, adora isn’t a mind reader. she didn’t know what catra truly wanted. 

but what catra, c/a stans, the narrative, and noelle keep telling us is that adora abandoned catra. the “just this once, stay” line proves that. adora escaped an abusive situation and everybody has turned this into adora abandoning catra because, according to the aforementioned people, this is exactly what happened and it wasn’t just another interesting facet to catra’s character. 

Here it is! I think the op does a good job of explaining the differences between their arcs and how differently they were handled, including how Cassandra's villain arc was too weak of a story to be the finale of the show. More so, I think it really highlights how the tangled series writers were capable to writing a good redemption arc but really dropped the ball when it comes to Cassandra.

and how in their same shows other villainous characters aren’t afforded the same luxuries (hordak, varian, even entrapta to some extent) yet these two get to skate on by because there’s someone else who treated them poorly, so their actions can be excused by that. adora/rapunzel ‘hurt’ them, so they’re allowed to be hurt and angry at them and once they’ve decided to be one of the good guys, they don’t need to work for forgiveness for all the hurt they caused.

Man, if I think about all of the potential that the c/a dynamic had I might actually lose my mind.

There was absolutely no reason that the enemies part in enemies to lovers had to be so violent. There was absolutely no reason for Catra to be so god damn violent towards Adora all of the time. Even when you take into account their good moments (not including s5 because who is she lol) there was always something bad to counteract it. Catra and Adora bond and reminisce in Light Hope's place? Ruined by the fact that Catra is willing to let Adora fall (or, you know, die) and then the way she fights without holding back in the finale fight of season 1.

It really sucks because can you imagine a spop where Catra does agree to join the rebellion but she stays with the Horde to gather intel for them? Then her and Adora could have that secret relationship, pretending to fight on the battlefield and then running off to laugh about it. Them being sort of smiley and happy post fight which raises suspicions in Scorpia and the BFS which would eventually lead to them being found out. Then Catra can make her choice, she can come to the Rebellion's side and unlearn all of the terrible things she picked up on in the Horde and the c/a romance could develop from there.

If Catra hasn't done anything bad (like try to open the portal, kidnap/try to kill Adora's friends, and try to essentially drug Adora) then her character arc isn't about being redeemed but giving her the space and opportunity to heal from her trauma in an environment full of love and understanding

That way, you don't have to write a lacklustre redemption arc if you don't want to or if you don't want to put the effort in to hold the character accountable for her terrible actions.

It really is a shame that Catra and the c/a relationship had so much potential and could have given us so much but what we're left with is an abuser who tried to destroy the world just to spite her love interest. It's insane.

It's just another thing that makes me so deeply sad about season 5 and the show in general. Catra had potential to be incredible not only as someone to relate to because of her trauma but for how she dealt with it. If Noelle had bothered to show us Catra actually healing and taking accountability for what she did, it would have been great representation for people who have done toxic things. Maybe Catra's victims don't forgive her but she still takes responsibility and strives to become a better person. She becomes better not because she wants to win the love of her victim but because it's what she needs as someone who wants to make up for what she did.

Think about the scene where Entrapta and Catra meet after Catra sent her to Beast Island. Imagine a scenario where Catra actually apologises for sending her off to potentially die and Entrapta thanks her for her apology but states that she cannot forgive her for something that terrible. Catra might wallow a little in self pity but she could then resolve to be a better friend to Scorpia and Entrapta, work on how she interacts with them, and actually prove that she's sorry. Enrapta could take her time to work up to forgiving her, if she wants to, and then they could restart a tentative friendship.

And none of that is done to win over Adora and prove to Adora she's a better person. It's done so that Catra can learn that forgiveness isn't automatically hers because she said sorry. And that's a great lesson to teach people, that just because you're sorry for hurting someone doesn't mean you're forgiven.

I think this is the hardest part about how awful season 5 was. It's all of the what ifs and missed opportunities and it's been over a year since it dropped now and a lot of us are still searching for more when the barrel is empty. Ever since I joined the salt fandom, as it were, I've seen so many good reworkings and canon divergent takes and fics that are far better than what we got and the people behind them give them to us for free.

What you wrote up here in a few hundred words is much better than five seasons of a show with an experienced crew, people who knew what they wanted these characters to be and still managed to mess it up somehow.

Disappointment, really.

Glimbow had all the makings of a f/m ship that I could get behind: friends to lovers, a little bit of angst, it was very healthy compared to other f/m ships out there and not to mention the childhood friends aspect!

Where it became a let down was how it was so clearly platonic. Glimmer and Bow were best friends, like siblings, and that was what was shown throughout the show. They were friends, had their ups and downs, and overall had a strong platonic relationship and that was a good thing. Strong and healthy relationships between men and women are rarely shown in media, they often become romantic and it's usually always out of nowhere. Exactly what happened with Glimbow.

Their bond never passed beyond friends and siblings for me, they never became more than just friends. Glimmer's jealousy at princess prom is easily explainable due to her sheltered upbringing and rarely having friends. She was protective of the only one she had (besides Adora) and even if that jealousy was romantic, there was nothing else like that in the show again. And not because they couldn't. Dreamworks and Netflix would've allowed them to show a hetero romance, so there was no reason not to build up to their romance in the final season. None at all.

Like, even in the flash forward scene, if you want to claim it as canon, they don't even act like a couple. They just walk in together and that's it. There's nothing to suggest that they aren't just good friends coming in to find their other friends. 

I don’t hate Glimbow and I really think it could’ve been a nice ship had it been portrayed properly but as far as I can see, it’s literally just another f/m ship that comes out of nowhere, with them professing love for each other out of nowhere. If this was Noelle’s attempt at subverting expectations then they did a really bad job of it.

Not to mention the really weird thing the spop writers did at the end of season 5 with having just about every character possible in a relationship. Like, some ships I get (seamista, entrapdak and begrudingly, c/a) but the others??? Glimbow and scorfuma and the horde trio.... Like not everybody has to end up in a relationship and most of the relationships that the show ended on needed a lot of work before they could even date.