An alternate take on the events from volume 4 onward, as they relate to three souls.
Roman Torchwick gains a second chance to leave his mark upon the world, but there's a caveat...
Weiss Schnee gains a companion at a point in her life where she most needs it, but there's a caveat...
Neopolitan gains the chance to reunite with that which is most precious to her, but there's a caveat...
...Because even when I write crack ship fics based on one-off jokes in youtube videos, I have to make them needlessly serious.
In the brief time I’ve spent in this fandom, I’ve always endeavored to express my thoughts as eloquently, long-form, and entertainingly as I possibly could. I’ll now continue that proud tradition by explaining my thoughts on the entrapdak elements of the final season, with all the grace my stunned brain is currently capable of:
*ahem* That was a thing. It was a thing that happened... and I bore witness to it....
... perhaps once the high wears off I’ll try to maybe express myself a bit better... for now, I’m going to quietly enjoy being right about a ship between a hyperactive girl and a bat-themed villian that *didn’t* end in death for once.
Came down with the flu, so work put me on 2 weeks medical leave to be safe. I don’t wanna waste the time, so i figured I’d stop procrastinating on this video essay idea I’ve wanted to do for a while now.
Attached is just a rough (*very* rough) recording of the introduction of the video, which will go over some of the least popular arcs of Bleach, and highlight what about them I thought were done well or what kept me reading.
Even with 2 weeks to focus exclusively on it, it’ll probably be more like a month before I have all the scripting, recording, and editing done, but eh...
Howdy! Merry Holidays, locks and tumblrs. Winter is coming soon! Everyone excited about that? No? Really? Just me? Aww, well alright. I ain’t your dad.
Another short one this week. Didn’t plan on writing anything, but then, I never really do. Got into an Entrapdak sorta mood, and scoured the internet for stuff relating to the ship, and I happened upon a post... somewhere (My memory isn’t great, and I’m in more places for this fandom than I’d care to admit)... that stuck with me. The post alleged that Entrapta couldn’t be autistic, because if she were, she would have to be high-functioning autistic, and high functioning autistic adults don’t behave like she does.
Now, I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that this is a perspective that’s particularly widespread or popular around these parts... indeed, the post that made the claim was the first time I’d ever heard it... and was quite possibly a deliberate troll. I couldn’t even find it again when I searched for it to do this post. I planned to ignore it... but it’s a viewpoint that just wouldn’t stop nagging me, y’know? After a few days I decided I had to go ahead and disagree with it, just for my own peace of mind. Well, this is my blog, after all! So I reckon I’mma do that now. Read on if ya want... or don’t... you know the drill by now.
So, like, I feel the best way to start is to break the statement down into its component parts.
1.) Entrapta would have to have a high-functioning variation of autism.
2.) Adults with such disorders don’t behave like she does [with the implicit modifier of ‘in the real world’]
3.) Because 1 and 2 are incompatible, Entrapta isn’t autistic
I don’t feel like statement 1 can really be contested. “High Functioning Autism” is more of a colloquial category than a medical diagnosis, but even in that capacity it’s only meaning is “person who has symptoms of autism, but no intellectual impairment”... Given her status as Etheria’s smartest woman, we can safely assume that Entrapta has no intellectual impairments, so indeed, if we are to assume she’s autistic, we would have to assume she was high-functioning.
Statement 2 is where the argument falls apart, because it makes the same assumption that a lot of flawed character takes about SPOP peeps make: that characters in a fantasy setting can be compared 1:1 to people who live normal lives in real society.
With regard to the assumption that High-functioning homies in the real world don’t behave like Entrapta... well, first of all I wonder how many such people this person has ever interacted with in a more personal setting... because I know quite a few who do... but second of all I do see what they mean in everyday social interactions.
Autistic =/= stupid, and by the time they reach adulthood, many people on the spectrum, either thanks to having a good support network or simply years to engage in trial and error, do get the hang of ritualistic social interactions. Autism entails a lack of ability to intuit appropriate responses/behaviors in social situations, but with enough study of the same interaction multiple times, it gradually becomes less a question of intuition and more a question of analyzing data, which is considerably easier to do. With enough time, support, and dedication, an adult on the spectrum can navigate social situations independently... maybe even find success in customer service jobs, provided said customer interactions are highly-ritualized, tend to follow a predictable series of conversation branches, and there’s a supervisor/manager nearby to take over if a customer breaks the script for some reason.
So yeah... in public, you don’t see many adults who would be considered high-functioning and on the spectrum behave like Entrapta does... but, like, do you see what those adults you’re comparing her to have... that she clearly didn’t? The support of understanding adults who patiently guided them as children, and time to practice social interactions in a safe environment.
Entrapta, if pictures are to be believed, was raised by robots. Robots she probably designed herself... and thus which probably aren’t any more socially capable than she is. The small number of humans she interacts with are:
a.) Subservient to her, due to the caste system of their society
and
b.) kinda... super, duuuper intimidated by her small army of robots... perhaps correctly so, as it would turn out, but still.
People on the spectrum don’t magically get better at social interaction because they age... it’s not like hair growing or vocal pitch shifting... it’s the result of patient work and the opportunity to develop. Entrapta had neither, so obviously, in spite of her age, she’s not nearly as socially developed as a woman her age would probably be had she been born into the real world.
...Also, she’s ADHD-coded, too... so that doesn’t help her much.
And so we reach the end of another one of my things I sometimes write. This one had less point than even my other things I sometimes write, but I had to write it, so here it is. Look, I’m *not* an expert on autism, I get that, and if I have something factually wrong, I encourage anyone to correct me. My one claim to any amount of understanding about autism is the relatively unremarkable happenstance of living with it for a few decades. I’m not saying that denying Entrapta is autistic-coded is inherently wrong... though that’s a character interpretation I can’t personally say I agree with... just that this argument, specificially, doesn’t jive with me.
Soo... hey! If you’re gonna drink a hot beverage, make sure it has some peppermint flavoring in it... unless you’re allergic to peppermint, ‘cuz then that would probably be bad... otherwise do it! It’s December! December and Peppermint go hand in hand, right? No? Really? Just me? Aww, well alright. I ain’t your dad.
Hello again, y’all! Is life still treating you okay? Have you spent time with your pet lately? Eating a healthy and balanced diet?
Just a smaller thing today, not one of my full-blown book reports, but the infection that is she-ra passion has somehow managed to reach me even through the haze of pokemon breeding that has owned my soul this past week, and I gotta words some more. The topic of discussion today will be Catra and Hordak… namely, how I interpret their dynamic going through season 4, and why some people view it as romantic.
I’m… a bit of a windbag, though! So, just to be safe, I’m gonna put the rest of this post behind a cut. Let it never be said I was aught but a considerate dude. Let’s discuss!
Now, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t view the dynamic between Catra and Hordak as romantic in season 4. I think the reason it can kind of seem that way is that season 4 really did shift their relationship in a fairly dynamic way, and the contrast between the way they interacted before and the way they interacted after is pretty stark. Normally, such a wide contrast is brought about by the development of romantic interest by one or both parties, but in this case I posit that the cause was something equally interesting... though quite a bit more tame: it was the first time there was any sort of emotional interaction between them, at all.
I should probably step back though! Lemme explain what I mean. How would you describe Catra’s relationships with Hordak and Shadow Weaver across the first three seasons of the show? One of the more interesting takes I’ve heard is that the dynamic between the three of them is an allusion to a dysfunctional family. Catra is the child acting out because she wants Mom and Dad to acknowledge her. Shadow Weaver is the caustic maternal figure, emotionally sabotaging her child for her own benefit, and Hordak is the aloof, emotionally detached father figure… The kind of Dad who can’t come to your basketball game this week, kiddo, because work called… but he’ll be there next week for sure!
...unless work calls again next week… and work always calls again.
I agree with about half of this. The fact that Shadow Weaver is meant to be seen as an allusion to a poisonous maternal relationship feels pretty close to undeniable. Likewise, any doubt that Catra sought to be valued emotionally by her flew out the window when we saw the way Shadow Weaver treated her in the illusory reality created by the portal.
Pictured... kitty getting scritches.
Catra wanted to be appreciated, accepted, and loved by Shadow Weaver, and the tragedy of her character comes from being denied those things. By contrast, when it comes to Hordak, of those three desires: appreciation, acceptance, and love… she only really wants two of them.
There is no personal element to the early relationship between Catra and Hordak, on either side. Catra neither seeks fatherly love from Hordak, nor seems to be distressed by the lack of it, and that difference in her dynamic with Shadow Weaver and Hordak is pretty important.
Catra desires maternal love from Shadow Weaver. What she desires from Hordak isn’t paternal love, but rather patriarchal validation. Hordak represents the power structure of the world into which Catra was born, and her desire is to be seen as a component of that structure that has value.
For three seasons, where Hordak is concerned, her first priority is to be seen as an undeniably competent subordinate. She endeavors to complete the tasks she’s given efficiently, and attempts to make suggestions with the intent of increasing the effectiveness of the organization. She fails in gaining his appreciation, and grows annoyed and frustrated by this, but that shallow anger she expresses toward him pales in comparison to the absolute devastation that Shadow Weaver’s ever-more-personal rejections bring her. Had the status quo remained where it was, the two of them likely would never have grown any closer to one another… but then season 4 happened.
So, last week I shamelessly stole a question aimed @cruelfeline , and in my tactless theft I mentioned my answer to the question “why didn’t Catra just kill Hordak when she had him at her mercy in episode one”. I’m going to repeat that here, just to make sure it’s established:
“Some people don’t get why she spared Hordak instead of killing him, when she had him at her mercy, but she actually had a pretty vital need for him. Catra has lost the ability to self validate: a lifetime of being raised by Shadow Weaver has beaten it out of her. Thus, she has a pretty intense desire to receive external validation from an outside force… and with Shadow Weaver gone, Hordak was the only person around who could provide that.”
And let’s be clear on this first and foremost: the S4 relationship between Catra and Hordak is, for both parties, an attempt at rebound. This is the first time Catra has Shadow Weaver fully cut from her life, leaving her with only Hordak to supply her with parental appreciation, and Hordak has been betrayed by someone he cared for deeply, but receives motivation to destructively channel his negative emotions from Catra.
This is also the first time Catra interacts with the real Hordak, and not the mask he usually wears before his subordinates. While being exposed to his vulnerability gave her the power to usurp him, it also led her to a realization: Hordak is… a lot like her. One of my other favorite moments of wordless acting takes place with Catra in season 4. Hordak is expressing his feelings of inadequacy and desire to be acknowledged by his brother while destroying them princesses, and Catra, despite saying nothing, displays a range of expressions and ear movements that seem to say ‘wait a minute… is this guy… actually my dad, after all?’
That realization of commonality leads to the first actual emotional interactions between the pair. The first actual attempt to understand each other, and that is, undeniably, a massive shift from the cold professionalism of their previous relationship. Catra was always quick to assure Hordak that their actions were leading them down the path to his brother’s acknowledgment, and Hordak, in turn, validated Catra’s actions and choices… which she especially needed to hear in season 4, when she pushed literally everyone else out of her life.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, their relationship was mutually self destructive… each brought out the worst from the other, and helped their downward spiral remain in motion. It’s interesting how there is a bit of similarity to the dynamic between Hordak and Entrapta and the one between he and Catra. Both are examples of awkward, lonely people, realizing they share more in common than they realized, and growing closer as a result. The latter is more parental than romantic, but the similarity is intentional, all the same… a way of contrasting healthy and unhealthy relationships, if I had to guess.
So… yeah! If you’re wondering what the point of all that was… well… I’m flattered you think highly enough of me to assume I ever have a point to saying anything! I was just pondering she-ra while biking across Galar, waiting for my rookidees to hatch...as you do… and decided I wanted to talk about it some more!
As always, I’m not really out here to persecute the Catdak shippers… er… all five of you. I will never be the guy to judge people who ship things I personally don’t like, because I’m not a mailbox head. Just expressing why I don’t think it’s romantically coded, but also why I still find it fascinating regardless.
That’s enough outta me, though! You guys have a lovely and productive week. If you have any she-ra related thingamajigs you, for whatever reason, wish to hear my thoughts about, feel free to ask, and I’ll see ya the next time I have the urge to feel ways about stuff. Been procrastinating on my fanfic writing… so I think my next order of business will be to get that ball rolling again. Anyhow, see ya! Be sure to indulge in the finest of all winter beverages: warm, spiced eggnog.
Do you think Hordak developed any romantic inklings towards Catra when things were going "well" between them?
Ah, that’s a good question. I confess that I’m not the ideal person to ask; I myself don’t really understand the difference between romance and deep friendship aside from sex (which I’ve been told isn’t the case, but no one’s been able to really define it for me), so my opinion on this may or may not be useful.
I don’t think he was kindred spirits with Catra as he was with Entrapta, if that makes sense. I think he reached out for connection and found a comfort in the praise she gave him, but beyond that… well, even if something might have developed, it all crashed and burned too quickly.
I am essentially 100% sure that Catra didn’t care about him at all. So I wouldn’t approve of it, even if he had one day felt something.
You could potentially read the energy between them as romantic, if you really wanted to, though I don’t think that was quite the intention. I ain’t one to judge what other people do with their free time... though catdak is a ship I could never sail on... just waaaay too destructive... also she’s kinda his daughter, and I ain’t about that life.
What the relationship was, romantic-coded or not, was unhealthy, though.
Catra was in a free-fall in season 4. Some people don’t get why she spared Hordak instead of killing him, when she had him at her mercy, but she actually had a pretty vital need for him. Catra has lost the ability to self validate: a lifetime of being raised by Shadow Weaver has beaten it out of her. Thus, she has a pretty intense desire to receive external validation from a maternal/patriarchal force... and with Shadow Weaver gone, Hordak was the only person around who could provide that.
Hordak is recovering from a bad breakup
Hordak is dealing with a personal betrayal, and kinda lost the motivation to do anything in season 4. You get the feeling that if Catra hadn’t been there, he would have spent the whole season sulking on the floor in front of the teleporter, listening to Linkin Park.
Catra directs his negative emotions toward aggression, providing him with a distraction and a way to feel in control of himself, and in exchange Hordak provides her with validation. Both provide the other with what they think they need in the moment, but since it’s not actually what they need, it results in them dragging each other deeper into darkness.
...Sorry I keep sniping your posts, Feline... I’m very bored. >.>
Hello! How’s the family? Cat treating you okay? Isn’t autumn just...like… the best? Anyway, so, my Hordak thing turned out to be kinda popular. I’m flattered, really! If there are people out there willing to reward me writing stuff with positive attention, then I’ll just have to write more stuff. I mentioned back then that I had a similar write-up about Entrapdak, as a ship… and there seemed to be a little bit of interest in hearing my thoughts on the subject.
So, here ya go! I’m Lancer, by the by. Not a lot to me. I’m a guy who likes things, and who enjoys articulating why I like things. I don’t really do it for any particular reason. I’m not trying to pwn haters or convert nonbelievers… As you may recall, though you might have missed it (I tend to be very lowkey and subtle about it), I’m not your dad and have no interest in the position… unless it pays. I just feel like the internet doesn’t have enough positivity, and the best way to remedy that is to produce some of my own.
As fate would have it, I like Entrapdak. A lot. I don’t ship often... a relationship has to really sync with me on a profound level to make me invested enough in it to want to write about it, but this one did it. Now, I’m not really promising originality here. As someone who explores the tag frequently, I know that plenty have expressed feelings I’m going to share with you here, many of whom did so better than I ever could, but sometimes you want to share your perspective, even if others whose opinions mirror yours have done so in the past, y’know? It’s a human thing!
The relationship is a little… polarizing with people, though, I’ve noticed. A lot of people hate it, and have various reasons for doing so. Again, I ain’t here to convert you if you feel that way, but I did feel like the best way to kick things off would be to look at some of the major reasons other people tend to react to the ship like it were horseradish on a hotdog, and why those reasons don’t really bother me. A part that I, in my infinite wit and adorned in my clever pants, have dubbed:
Part 1: Entrapdak- Why I don’t hate it
***EXAMPLE THE FIRST: “HORDAK, THE AGED”***
By now it’s fairly well known that Entrapta is somewhere in the range of her late 20s to her early 30s. Now a few people refuse to accept this, citing her behavior as childish and accusing the creators of lying. I’m not really going to engage with that perspective. Hordak and Entrapta have appeared together in creator works and concept art dating back to 2017. Their interactions were intended to be a part of the show from the early stages of its creation. If you have so little faith in Noelle that you believe she planned for her story to have a romantic-coded relationship between an adult and a minor… I don’t know what I can even tell you.
Rather, the perspective that interests me comes from people who accept Entrapta being in the stated age range, but who still find themselves repulsed by the relationship on grounds of age. ‘She’s an adult, sure, but how old is Hordak? He could be in his fifties or sixties, or even be hundreds of years old.’ This point of view is at least interesting to think about, so I reckon I can share why this deal-breaker for some doesn’t really bother me.
To begin, assigning human ages, and the stigmas thereof, to an alien bat clone just feels strange to me. The Horde doesn’t seem like the type of place to want to waste resources on alien bat clone daycare... was Hordak born as an infant, or was he artificially developed to his current age? If it’s the later, do we consider him 0 years old at the moment of his birth, or already an adult? We don’t have a timescale provided to accurately determine his age, so investing too heavily in trying to learn it seems somewhat tedious and a lotofwhat pointless.
If we do, though, my next question is: what is the element of an age gap that makes it inappropriate? Now, that’s a personal question, of course. Morality isn’t something that really lends itself to objective declarations, but there are a few answers you can offer. ‘Morality’ isn’t really the operative word here anyway... since it has more to do with taste, though this particular taste does come from what you believe… Y’know, it just occurred to me, but… People who believe that their taste in ships makes them morally superior, and that ships they dislike are supported by moral degenerates, seem like people who just aren’t a lot of fun to be around or think about… but that’s a digression, I’ll refocus my thought-lazer.
For me, with age gaps, it comes down to two things:
1.) Both parties being on the same side of the child/adult divide- I should hope this one sounds reasonable, right? The ships that really powdered sugar my poptart are the ones that feel like equal partnerships, and relationships that try to cross this line tend to not be especially equal.
2.) What stage in their lives they’re at- It’s difficult for even a wizard of self expression like myself to state plainly, so let me give an example: If I saw a 25 year old dating a 50 year old, the 25-year age difference isn’t so much what makes it off-putting, but rather what those 25 years represent in this circumstance. At age 25, people are still struggling to find themselves. They’re adjusting to independence, gaining an identity, maybe finally finding an entryway into a career path that suits them. By 50, a person is already established. They likely have a career, they have a firm grasp on who they are as a person and what they want to be, and they almost certainly have a greater degree of financial stability. Thus, if they enter a relationship, which is supposed to be equal, it doesn’t feel that way. One side has a stronger position than the other, and over time that could become power they use to sway and control the other.
I don’t see Hordak as being in a more advanced stage of his life than Entrapta. They seem to be at about the same place when it comes to self actualization. In fact, Hordak is a bit more arrested in his development than Entrapta is, simply because he’s never really thought to question what would make him happy or why. Hordak rules the Horde, which Entrapta is a part of… which could lead to an imbalance, if Entrapta, like, could be bothered to give even the slightest toss of a salad about status or promotion, but she doesn’t. Neither of them holds higher ground over the other in a way that’s significant to the two of them. In terms of life stage, they’re perfectly equal. The fact that Hordak might be physically older than her by some unspecified amount is, by itself, completely arbitrary and meaningless.
*** EXAMPLE THE SECOND: ‘ENTRAPTA, THE MANIPULATED’***
A second, rarer discussion point for those who are unfond of the ship is that it’s unhealthy, on the grounds that Hordak is manipulating Entrapta. Taking advantage of her naivete to coerce her into aiding the forces of darkness despite not caring for her at all. Now, as I mentioned above, I ain’t writing this to change anyone’s mind. If you’re reading this, and this is a viewpoint you hold as valid, do what makes you happy, homie. That said, the issue I ran into when I tried to think of why this perspective didn’t bother me was a vexing one. See, I like to fancy myself an empathetic dude. I try really hard to consider other people’s perspectives when I have a disagreement, and avoid judging anyone too harshly if I don’t know their full circumstance… but even with all that alleged empathy at my disposal… this hot take about Entrapdak is… kinda completely incomprehensible to me?
Like, I have no idea how anyone could have seen the interactions between the two and draw this conclusion?
Part of it has to do with how Entrapta is written. She’s both ADHD-coded and Autistic-coded, and there’s a tendency to perceive the behaviors of both those groups of people as childish. People who see that ‘childishness’ extrapolate it further to a general innocence/stupidity, and assume the character in question lacks the faculties to engage with other people evenly.
Look, I don’t have ADHD, but I am super, duper autistic. Having lived with myself for a lifetime, let me just say, I kind of get why this happens. We get extremely focused on our hobbies, we’re bad at reading social nuance, we have very simplistic body language, we tend to express our emotions in a very blunt and straightforward manner… I get that, for most neurotypical people, the only other group they ever encounter who shares these traits are children, and thus they tend to subconsciously connect the two. I understand why it happens, even if I do find it awkward and condescending.
…but y’all are underestimating Entrapta. She’s not helping the horde because she’s helpless and being manipulated. She’s helping them because she has no moral compass to speak of, and will eagerly assist with any scientific endeavor she finds interesting, without care for its ultimate application. In season 1, she knew well in advance the damage her actions would have on the world, and followed through with them anyway. In season 2, she happily assisted in the creation of a portal, knowing full-well that its opening would invite a colonialist military force into the vicinity of her home, and only withdrew her support for the project… hesitantly… when it became clearly evident that activating it would eradicate all life on the planet. At no point is she ever acting while the applications of her actions are being hidden from her by Hordak. She’s not an innocent child.
The thing is, though, I agree that Entrapta would be incredibly easy to manipulate… if someone knew what buttons to push. She is very self conscious of how difficult it is for her to form lasting emotional bonds with other people. She tends to blame herself when she feels she’s been abandoned by others, and feels that her inability make friends is a sign that she’s a defective failure. If someone wanted to manipulate her into doing something she didn’t want to do, they would probably find success if they offered her friendship and then fed into that self loathing, emotionally abusing her by implying that she was indeed a failure, and would be abandoned again if she didn’t obey. That is totally something someone could do to her, and I would absolutely not enjoy any ship between her and such a person. Good thing Hordak… y’know… did literally the opposite of that.
***EXAMPLE THE THIRD- “ENTRAPDAK, THE PLATONIC”***
A nice short one to balance out the longer examples above. Quite a few people just deny that there are romantic implications behind their interactions, and see them as a friendship instead. I do disagree with this assessment, but honestly, even if it were true, this would still be my favorite relationship in the show.
Something that has always boggled me about people on the internet is their tendency to treat friendship like some ‘equal but opposite’ force to romance… a status independent of a romantic relationship rather than literally the foundation upon which all successful romantic relationships are built. Genuine friendship is a beautiful, underrated thing, and acting as though the bond of friendship is inherently less worthy of appreciation than romance is silly.
So… yeah… platonic Entrapdak… I disagree, but even if you’re right and I’m wrong in the end… I’ll be pretty okay with that, too. Movin’ on.
***EXAMPLE THE FOURTH: ‘HORDAK, THE IRREDEEMABLE’***
For the last dealbreaker I want to consider today, I figured I’d bring one up that’s a lot like the platonic argument, in my eyes: that an evil guy like Hordak can’t change his ways, even with the power of love. Thus, the relationship is bust, because what’s the point of of a villain x heroine ship, if not to redeem the villain?
...
So, recently I wrote this whole big thing about Hordak, where I argued in favor of his redemption, and why I felt like that was where the story is going… I stand by the opinions expressed there, but I’d like to ask any who read that to push it out of their mind for now. Hordak’s redemptive potential is largely irrelevant to my feelings about this ship. When it comes to entrapdak, when confronted by the possibility that Hordak may remain a villain, my reaction is the most intense and passionate of shrugs.
...I just don’t care.
There’s a tendency to assume that redemption is the aim of a villain ship, and I suppose I can see why that is. There’s a bit of a stereotype for female fantasies where they fix a broken man with the power of their love, and when people ship villains, that’s probably the first assumption an outsider will make as to why. I cannot speak for others, but that’s just not a factor in the appeal of their relationship for me.
When you allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of another person, you open yourself up to the risk of being completely devastated by them. When you show vulnerability to another person, and they accept that side of you, and express vulnerability of their own, you establish a genuine connection with that person, and those connections are kiiiinda one of the most important elements of the human experience.
That Hordak was a villain who did terrible things was always kinda aside from the point of what really makes Entrapta and Hordak such a bewitching pairing for me. It was always the serendipity of two people who privately believe they’re alone in the world realizing they resonate with one another in a meaningful way. Resonance is the appeal of Entrapdak, not redemption.
I tend to hope for Hordak’s redemption, I won’t lie, and I do think it’s likely, but I don’t think it’ll be love that redeems him, nor would I want it to be… not entirely. I like seeing flawed, morally dark/gray characters overcome the obstacles that deny them self actualization, and watching them grow as a result.
That’s got nothing to do with him and Entrapta, though. Whether the story ends with the pair of them riding into the sunset to collect data and invent shit, or with the pair of them leading the Horde in the name of galactic conquest and terror… I’m down with it either way, dude. In the context of the ship, I care that Hordak is an evil overlord… about as much as Entrapta does.
However, pseudo-responding to naysayers is a bit negative for my tastes. I prefer to focus on the positive in life, like the smell of soil and rain on a crisp autumn morning. I… I’m in a very fall mood, okay? Sue me. Y’know what else I like, though? Entrapdak. Lemme wax poetic for a bit longer, and I’ll tell ya why this ship is, like, the peanut butter on my blueberry pancakes.
Part 2: Entrapdak- Why I love it
So, uh… If brevity is the soul of wit, I may be something of an idiot. I’ve made my peace with that, of course, I’m just sayin’: I’m many things, but I’m not pithy. If someone were to put a gun to my head, though, and demand that I describe the shipping aesthetic I love the most in life in a single sentence… I would probably respond with this:
My favorite ships are ones in which awkward, lonely people bond over a shared fondness of nerdy hobbies.
Now, that sounds super narrow, and it totally is… I don’t get new OTPs very often… but hearing that, I imagine you can see why Entrapta and Hordak immediately appealed to me. It goes a bit deeper, though.
The bonds between people are a major part of the story of She-ra. We see how characters are changed, positively or negatively, by the connection they share with other characters. Just like in real life, these connections are a mixed bag; some of them are positive, and some are negative. Some characters, like Hordak and Catra, resonate strongly with one another, but the resonance is a negative force in their lives, which draws them deeper into darkness, and for many of the characters in the show, their character journeys are about breaking free of such toxic relationships and forming healthy bonds.
The bond between Entrapta and Hordak is unique among all bonds in the show though, in that it is the only one that isn’t mixed. It is an unambiguous positive influence on both of them. Let’s break it down a little bit.
***ENTRAPTA***
Entrapta, at first, seems like the kind of person who isn’t super connected to other people. At the princess prom, she mentions that she finds observing the relationships of others far more fascinating than forging relationships of her own, and she spends much of the early seasons working alone with her robots, buried in whichever task happens to have her interest in that particular moment.
Later seasons gradually tear this facade away, though, and reveal a fairly tragic truth hidden behind it. I mentioned above that she internalizes her failures to form lasting bonds with other people, and is genuinely distraught about it. When she’s exiled to Beast Island, her frustration at her inability to make friends was the driving force that chained her there, even more so than her love of technology and invention. It becomes clear that, to some degree, she buries herself in her work to escape her feelings of inadequacy.
This is a relatable and sad thing to realize about a character, but it also has the unpleasant effect of making events that were played for laughs earlier in the show somewhat tragic in hindsight. Seeing the way she interacted with the Princess Alliance, you could see how she would have come to a very soul-crushing misunderstanding: That, among other people, she was someone whose presence was… tolerated- at times even appreciated- but never seemed to be enjoyed by anyone. She was the friend everyone sought out when they needed her help, then forgot about.
This wasn’t the case, of course, and clarifying her value to the group was what ultimately helped her escape the vines in season four, but from her perspective that was how it appeared, and likely how all her previous interactions with other people had gone before that. Some people complained about how easily Entrapta was able to believe that the princesses had left her behind, but it’s the same reason Hordak was so easily able to believe that Entrapta had betrayed him: In the eyes of someone who hates themselves, it’s only a matter of time before others abandon them.
That said, it also goes to show why Hordak became so special to her. For the first time in her life, she had a friend who joined her in her workspace, instead of leaving her to a task after giving it to her. Someone able to converse equally with her about subjects she was interested in. The elements of herself that made it so difficult to draw closer to others were the very same elements that caused her to get so close to him. Her intelligence and hyper-focus upon science made her the intellectual peer of a space-faring alien, her lack of awareness of social subtext helped her to see beyond the barriers he put up to keep other people away, and her past experience with failure and rejection helped her to empathize with his pain.
It’s perfectly pleasant to find someone who accepts you and enjoys your company despite not understanding the idiosyncratic elements of your personality, but that pales in comparison to how it feels to find someone who accepts you precisely because they understand those elements.
***Hordak***
Hordak didn’t really have ‘peers’, per se, for most of his life. We don’t know the level of autonomy the average clone has in the Horde… but I feel comfortable assuming that the level isn’t very high. Thus, his circumstance differs quite a bit from Entrapta, in that, rather than trying to form bonds with others, and feeling like he failed, for much of his life he never had the chance to try to form them in the first place.
He is, at first, deeply dismissive of the people of Etheria, whom he regards as primitives who are beneath his acknowledgment. Much of this, as with much of everything that dictates how he treats others, is born of projection… dude has some pretty major self-loathing issues… but regardless of cause, it results in a kind of self-imposed isolation.
Unlike Entrapta, who knew, on some level, that her lack of ability to bond with others troubled her, Hordak kept most of his emotions bottled up... Locked so deeply inside him that not even he really bothered to try to understand them. That was where her disposition and his meshed perfectly for him. Because Entrapta was defined by her curiosity, and her lackluster awareness of his attempts to keep her at bay, she was able to metaphorically crack him open, forcing him to vocalize and confront his own motivations.
Sometimes you need someone to just… like... grab you with their hair, push you up against a vat, and demand you tell them everything, man.
I’ve already discussed Hordak fairly extensively in my first blog blurb thingy, and while I repeat myself by accident quite frequently, I’m loathe to repeat myself on purpose. I just wanted to take the opportunity to marvel at how well their personalities fit together. Perhaps I’m just high on this feeling: I’ve never actually shipped something a creator so clearly intended to be there, before!
*** In Conclusion***
We’re all born imperfect, and we’ll all die imperfect. Our imperfections are similar, but never uniform. Each of us bears jagged cuts and missing sections of many shapes and sizes. Humans are social creatures, and it’s in our nature to constantly seek one another out. We keep trying to find people who are strong where we are weak; someone whose missing sections happen to lie in a pattern compatible with our own.
We’ll resonate with many in our lifetime. Sometimes, the melody will be harmonious, and guide all involved higher and higher into the light of self actualization. Other times the sound will be discordant, and pull us down into self destruction. Sadly, from our perspective in the middle, it will always be difficult to tell which is which.
I love the relationship between Entrapta and Hordak because it’s a dynamic that elevates both of them. Not in a moral sense, but in a personal one. In a series defined by toxic and uneven relationships that wear others down and tear them apart, these two have a dynamic that shelters and reinforces them. Giving them an opportunity to be glad they were born the way they were, instead of cursing their misfortune.
It’s the kind of relationship that makes me muse about how imperfection really is beautiful. It’s because we’re imperfect that we never stop trying to harmonize with other people, and if there’s one theme I can’t help but feel that the show itself is building toward, it’s this:
Two in harmony surpass one in perfection.
***
So hey! Thanks for reading all of that! Sorry if it was a bit of a mess. Saying nothing with a great deal of words is a talent of mine, but I really do love these guys, and if you love ‘em too, don’t let anyone grind you down over it!
Let me know if you enjoyed my work, though! If so, I’ll be happy to share my thoughts on other things, since I’ll be stuck with this series on my brain until I see how my new obsession plays out. In the meantime take care of yourselves! If you do heavy lifting, make sure to do so with your knees, not your back. Tell someone who makes your day a little brighter how much you appreciate them. Then, take some time to savor the greatest of all winter beverages: hot apple cider.
So, I feel the need to talk about Hordak. This is, perhaps, not unusual. Once upon a time ago, writing stupidly long pseudo-essays about characters I rather liked used to be my thing… and it’s still a bug that bites me from time to time. The timing certainly seems right! Homeboy has been the topic of conversation lately, thanks to the recent release of She-ra season 4, and the manifold feels associated with it. I’m fond of Hordak, as it were, so I don’t mind sharing my perspective on the subject, since there’s some confusion as to his appeal.
The two stances I see taken on Hordak most often, by those who don’t like him, I should specify, are as follows:
A.) He’s an irredeemable villain who has done terrible things, and I don’t see why anyone would like him.
And
B.) He’s a lame, nonthreatening villain.
I’m not going to be engaging with mindset ‘B’ quite as much as with mindset ‘A’ in the following post, in part because the reasons why he’s so lame and nonthreatening are kinda tied to what I’ll be discussing by implication, but mostly because my response to mindset B can be summed up with the following:
“You are not wrong, at all. However, that’s literally the entire point of his character, so while you aren’t wrong to be disappointed if you were hoping he would be a more measured, megalomaniacal sort, it’s also not a failure on the part of the writers, since his lack of suitability for the role he was trying to play was always going to be what his story was about.”
Mindset ‘A’, though... well... that’s a bit tricky. Ultimately “irredeemable” is a personal value judgment. The threshold a character must cross before one audience member feels they no longer deserve forgiveness can vary quite wildly from another, and while trying to pass one’s personal opinion off as an objective fact is something of a pastime on the internet, I am- and I cannot state this emphatically enough- NOT your dad… probably. At least, I hope to god… Look, odds are really good that I’m not your dad, so… you do your thing and shine like the crazy diamond you are. I probably can’t change your mind, and considering I don’t even know you, it’d be kinda creepy if I thought I could!
What I can do, though, for those genuinely curious how anyone could consider him redeemable, is share my own perspective on the character, and why I think redemption is the direction the story is going, based on how I’ve read the text thus far… So I’m gonna do that. Let’s go over Hordak as he has appeared in the She-Ra reboot.
Part I: Season 1 Hordak
Now see, when we kick things off, I totally get where both the ‘A’ group and the ‘B’ group are coming from. Hordak, as he appears in season 1, seems ruthless, intimidating, and single-minded. Hordak doesn’t carry the conflict in season 1, serving as more of a background presence while Catra and Shadow Weaver, who have a more personal investment in the central narrative, do all the heavy lifting of antagonizing the heroes and angsting.
This keeps the attention off of Hordak, which is precisely how he likes things. When people aren’t going out of their way to interact with him, then it’s easy for him to control what few interactions he does have. That’s what season 1 shows us: Hordak, when he has perfect control over his own narrative. Every scene that features him is shot with a low angle, often with his form either concealed in shadows or with his face partially out of frame. When he speaks, he’s always calm and distant… but calm in that ‘he could totally fly into a rage at any instant’ way that keeps people on their toes. Pragmatic, taciturn, perfectly measured and groomed,… pretty tall! By any metric a reasonable person can measure a competent, intimidating villain, Hordak circa season 1 seems like he’d pass the test.
Part 2: Season 2-3 Hordak
Here’s the thing... though... about season 1 Hordak... that we learn pretty quickly when we transition into season 2: Season 1 Hordak is a massive fraud. Like, seriously, he’s a fabrication created out of necessity to hide a single, prevailing truth: Hordak is an awkward dork who is kinda terrible at being an evil overlord.
I’ve seen some people describe Hordak’s season 2-3 character development with the expression “You thought I was Ozai, but I was actually Zuko this whole time!” Now, I like this expression fine. I’ve borrowed it a time or two in the past, but with regard to Hordak, I prefer to phrase it like this:
“You thought I was Emperor Palpatine, but I was really the Wizard of Oz this whole time!” The former expression gives someone an idea of the tropes of the character pretty well, but the latter does a better job, I feel, of showing the relationship between season 1 and later seasons with Hordak. Hordak is a competent, unflappable, all-seeing leader… hey, hey! Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain!
Hordak’s past… as a mindless clone created to lead other mindless clones in a mindless clone army… has left him laughably unprepared for the task of leading others. He’s smart, like, in a general bookish sense, but he has no charisma, no interpersonal talents to speak of, and doesn’t really seem to have any grasp of how to motivate his underlings, save to reward talent with promotion.
Out of necessity, Hordak keeps his true self buried underneath multiple layers of protection. The first layer is the season 1 illusion: Delegate direct command of his soldiers to a single adjutant, interact with that adjutant just enough to keep them in line, and remain in his sanctum all day, like the geeky shut-in he is.
The first layer is pretty nice, and seems to have bought him quite a few years running the horde… but what happens if, say, some uppity Force Captain decides to pester him with personal status reports… or some absent-minded inventor decides to raid his lab for a six-sided hex driver? Personally interacting with his minions for too long will reveal the illusion he’s been hiding behind! Well, fear not... This is where the second layer of protection comes in handy.
Yes, Hordak’s second layer of defense: blustering, shouting, and intimidating. Threaten them with dire consequences for bothering him, let them visit the planet with nearly-enough-atmosphere for a few seconds… do everything in his power to frighten them so badly they never want to directly interact with him again. What should happen if this second layer fails him, though? They learn of the most terrifying secret in Hordak’s entire arsenal.
...There is no third layer…
Nope. If a minion is plucky enough to peak behind the curtain of his grand illusion, and then bold enough to stand their ground at the explosion of hot air that follows… he has basically no follow-up left. One of my favorite nonverbal scenes in the entire series is the moment where he realizes that his screaming is having no visible impact on Entrapta. There’s a look on his face that seems to say ‘What the hell am I supposed to do now!?’… like, it’s clear the dude has never needed a third step to scare someone away before.
Ah, but you, my savvy reader, have no doubt cottoned on to the error in my argument thus far. Establishing that Hordak is an awkward, introverted nerd doesn’t really change the fact that he built the Etherian horde. The fact that he’s not especially competent doesn’t change the bad deeds his committed! Well, rest assured, you beautiful person who can claim no paternal relation to me, I agree! However, characterizing Hordak like this goes hand in hand with the other big reveal of season 3: his backstory.
Now, cards on the table, I’ve been taking Hordak as he comes, and up until this point I didn’t really have any strong idea of whether they were going the big-bad or redeemed-bad route with him. It wasn’t until season 3, when his origin was revealed, that I genuinely began to suspect that the redemption path was where the writers were headed, because it re-frames his actions in a subtle, but pretty important way.
With no Horde Prime, when one looks at Hordak, they see a man who orchestrated a corrupt and oppressive system for his personal benefit, who holds others in disdain due to self-aggrandizement, and is motivated by a desire to be seen as greater than everyone else. That is a character who would be very hard to convincingly redeem. While I’m loathe to raise the specter of Steven Universe discourse here, it’s a lot like the notion of redeeming the Diamonds… and, while I have no strong feelings about that show one way or the other, suffice it to say I can at least see why their redemption is controversial.
Horde Prime shifts the context of Hordak’s actions, though. Now, Hordak is a man who perpetuates the very system he is, himself, a victim of, because it’s the only system he knows. His conflict with others is born from the projection of his own self loathing. Said self-loathing comes from his chief motivation, which is to be acknowledged as worthy by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in ever offering him that acknowledgment.
Such a character is still flawed and villainous, because of course it is. If a character has done nothing wrong, they don’t need redemption in the first place. It’s a lot easier to accept the struggles of a flawed character if they’re a victim of oppression rather than its source. To borrow the SU comparison one final time, the Horde Prime twist reveals to us that Hordak isn’t a diamond, he’s just another one of the countless gems caught in their system.
By the by, does “perpetuates a system they, themselves, are victims of, suffers from conflicts born of projected self loathing, and desire to be acknowledged by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in providing said acknowledgment” sound familiar? I hope so! It ties into my final point of the day.
Part 3: Season 4 Hordak (aka “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc”)
Now, implying similarity in the character arcs of Hordak and Catra has, historically, been a fraught endeavor. Even I, Hordak stan extraordinaire, felt that we needed to see a bit more of where the writers were wanting to take Hordak before we went and made comparisons. Then season 4 happened… and guys… the subtitle of season 4 may as well have been “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc.”
Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Catra had people she could perceive as her peers, which granted her a social circle outside of her direct superiors whom she could feel camaraderie with, which added a dimension to the emotional turmoil she felt, but in broad strokes it seems to be a comparison that the writers are inviting us to make. Their alliance in season 4 is based around their commonality. They motivate one another by feeding into the insatiable hunger both of them feel for external validation… in that regard, they bring out the worst in each other, and thus season 4 ends with both of them brought to their lowest point.
At the end of season 4, if the princesses had never arrived, and Double Trouble hadn’t been there to finally force her to confront the emotions she insistently projected onto others, Catra would have assumed the mantle she claimed from Hordak. She would have ruled the horde, devoid of satisfaction or happiness, and any children she took into her numbers she would have treated in exactly the same way Shadow Weaver treated her, and the same way Horde Prime treated Hordak.
To escape that fate, she needed her chance to face the system that oppressed her, and then the chance to face herself… and only once she had done both, could she start to move forward again. That’s why we see the start of her recovery in the final scenes of the season. Catra did unspeakably terrible things- by the end of season 4 her atrocity count easily rivals Hordak’s- and not everything can be blamed exclusively on others, but we, as an audience, have seen enough of what made her the way she is… that’s why most of us are onboard with her eventual redemption.
Catra is, beneath all the layers of spite and illusions of who she thinks she should be, a sweet kid who ultimately wants to reconnect with a friend she fears abandoned her, and to be respected and appreciated by the authority figures in her life.
Hordak is, ultimately, a hikikomori dweeb who, not too long ago, was content to spend the rest of eternity with his gamer girlfriend in his lab, pretending to put together a portal machine.
The villain of She-ra is Horde Prime, and the system he put into place to feed his arrogance at the expense of those trapped within it. For those inside that system, like Catra or Hordak, they don’t cross the line and become truly irredeemable until they are given a clear and unambiguous chance to escape from that system and change their life for the better… but refuse to grasp it. Even then… sometimes it takes them a little while to see the hand being offered to them… and sometimes that hand is in the form of a fist.
In conclusion
Look, guys, I’ll be real with you… I made a play at pretending that I wrote this for some point or another… but I kinda didn’t. When I get into a fandom headspace, words get stuck in my head, y’know? When they do, they buzz around like bees until I write ‘em someplace… so here we are.
I’m not so arrogant as to assume I can change anyone’s mind with my 4 AM word vomit about the emaciated bat villain in my favorite children’s cartoon. This is just a thing I wrote! Maybe if you agree with it it makes you happy, and if you disagree with it then it doesn’t get’cha too worked up! I was gonna include Hordak’s relationship with Entrapta into the proceedings… but honestly, that would have doubled the length of this thing, and would have been kinda tangential to the point. I may do a more shippy essay thing later on… but if there’s one thing I learned from the last time I wrote a bunch of these… it’s that planning them out never works well. I guess if people wanna see it I can write it though.
Anyway, I’m rambling, so I’m gonna letcha go! Thanks for listening to my TED talk. Remember, villains are an artform, people are complicated, and hot cocoa is the best winter beverage. I’m going back to fanfic writing until the next bout of insomnia!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 3/6
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Characters: Hordak (She-Ra), Entrapta (She-Ra), Horde Prime (She-Ra), Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra), Bow (She-Ra)
Additional Tags: Angst and Feels
Summary:
Privately, Prime is a bit of a ponce.
However often you reset him to factory default, Hordak is gonna Hordak.
Entrapta has feelings, too.
Original draft had a scene between DT and Prime. Turns out, I can’t wait for those two to interact... but for now it stole too much focus from a very short story, so I had to cut it.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 2/6
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Characters: Hordak (She-Ra), Entrapta (She-Ra), Horde Prime (She-Ra), Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra), Bow (She-Ra)
Additional Tags: Angst and Feels
Summary:
Sometimes, its the moment when you're being robbed of everything that helps you finally understand yourself.
I decided I couldn’t bring myself to let a fanwork end on such a downer note when season 4 rocked my ship so hard already, so I’ve decided to go ahead and expand it into a middle-size fluff piece, instead. Now featuring chapter 2... which will involve... even more tears. I promise it gets less tear-filled! I don’t have a problem!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Characters: Hordak (She-Ra), Entrapta (She-Ra)
Additional Tags: Angst and Feels
Summary:
Sometimes, its the moment when you're being robbed of everything that helps you finally understand yourself.
I can’t promise it won’t crush your soul... but I write what I feel, dammit, and season 4 left me feeling... a kinda way.
What’s up, friendos? So, Android 17 has been the toast of the town in Dragon Ball circles lately. Don’t get me wrong, that’s awesome and definitely deserved: the dude is unquestionably the MVP of the tournament of power, and if you try to say otherwise, I’ll… shrug and carry on with my day, I guess. You do you, I ain’t your dad.
No, but seriously, go to any discussion forum or comment section these days, and you’ll see plenty of people talking about how great and cool 17 was, and how he’s definitely shone more than any other during the current arc. I agree with the sentiment whole-heartedly, so we’re not here to discuss that, rather, I want to bring up some of the negativity that has come along with this newfound bump in fan appreciation.
See, where there’s hype, there must be backlash, and 17 has been subjected to plenty of that. With every more popular member of team universe 7 to be eliminated before him, the number of people bitter at his continued presence grew. This is fine, in and of itself, for the ‘not your dad’ reason I listed above, but there are two specific complaints I occasionally hear about 17 that I just can’t co-sign for you, and I decided to write this up to address them.
The first is: “He’s not even the same character he was! This guy doesn’t act anything like 17/has nothing in common with his DBZ incarnation”
the second is: “He’s boring/blank/bland! He has no personality.”
Since I’m one of the five people worldwide who listed Android 17 as his favorite character ever since the good ole days of Z, I figure the least I can do is roll up my sleeves and share some of the reasons I disagree with the above, as well as express how I see his actions and arc. We’ll go through the timeline of events he participated in, and see if we can’t parse together the delinquent he was with the chill park ranger he would become!
PART 1: A Reminder of the Android’s Origin and the Future Timeline
So, Android 17 was originally Lapis, a teenage delinquent who would often go out and rabble-rouse with his sister and his droogs, playing their rap music too loud, wearing pants with the waistband far lower than the waistband of pants should be allowed to hang in civilized society, and other stuff like that, I assume.
Unfortunately for the duo, Dr. Gero was about, looking for a team of teenagers with attitude he could convert into an armada of godless killing machines. One might feel prompted to ask why Gero intended to create machines so powerful that he couldn’t control them uness they wanted to listen to his orders, but sought the demographic of humans statistically least likely to ever listen to what an old man has to say to them to be the vessels of those machines, but this isn’t an essay about Gero being a silly, silly man.
Rather, the salient point to take out of the backstory we’re given is that 17 and 18 started out with a chip on their shoulder and a lack of love for people or society. We don’t get any info on their home life or their parents, but based on their choice of hobby, and the ease with which they were spirited away, we can safely assume there were no happy beginnings here. From the moment they became relevant to the universe of DB they were already in a position to hate society; being kidnapped by a madman and turned into cyborgs specifically to vent THAT madman’s hatred of society only exacerbated this, resulting in a mixture that basically burned the world to the ground.
Fast forward to some time later, and humans are an endangered species, Gohan has been disarmed, and Trunks has been brought to the verge of death. We don’t really learn a lot about the personalities of the future incarnation of the androids. They behaved like a pair of psychopathic children, destroying the world less because of any deeply held hatred or bloodlust, but more because it sounded like a fun idea and what else were they gonna do with their weekend? They share some elements of their character with the versions of themselves who would be proper cast members, which I’ll get to later, but for the purposes of the story they were more of a force of nature than anything.
It’s too late for the future… but not the entire multiverse! So Trunks head back to the past, but hold up, Jack! Would his warnings prove accurate?
Part 2: Android 17 in DBZ
The first thing we learn about android 17 is that he’s a troll. Seriously, not only is he quite sardonic in his disposal of his stepdad, the first interaction he has with the Z warriors, his nominal enemies, is to beckon Krillin over to him, then abruptly stand up and frighten him. No end game, no intent to harm, he just really wanted to screw with the poor guy. He’s a gadfly who frequently says and does things for no greater reason than to see the reaction they provoke in others.
The second thing we learn is that he shares his future incarnation’s flippant, whimsical attitude, but to a less morbid extreme. He makes short work of the assembled heroes, but treats it like clearing the arcade mode of a fighting game, stopping at the knockout and expressing a hope they may be more fun if he encounters them again. When 18 steps up to fight Vegeta, 17 reacts to it like a child whose sister beat him to calling dibs on the front seat during a car trip.
The third thing we learn is that he is one cocky little punk. He refers to himself as the ultimate warrior on multiple occasions, brags constantly about himself, and treats the notion of anyone being his rival, much less stronger than he is, as a notion so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve his contempt.
These three traits are important because they remain central to his disposition even as a grown man, albeit to a far more muted and mature degree, even though his personality does change quite a bit during the ten years we don’t see him. It may be tempting to say that being eaten by a bug man was what served to put a sock in his constant “I’m the best in the world” talk, and that certainly did play a role in who he became, but I would say his character started to change a little bit before that: during his fight with Piccolo.
The thing about 17’s strength is that it has nothing to do with martial prowess. As a delinquent he certainly had experience in street fights, but he never did any formal training, or did anything that would require effort or discipline. When Gero made 17 an android he made him so strong that he could crush anyone he encountered, but it was just that, raw strength. It had no technique or prowess behind it.
As the fight progresses, we see 17’s attitude toward Piccolo change subtly. At the start, he’s just a toy to be played with, another level in his game to be cleared and forgotten about, but as it progresses Piccolo does something that 17 had never encountered before: he holds his own. With skill and grace, he matches every move 17 has, blow for blow. In the past 17 had had many fights as a bully and a thug, but this was the first time in his life he did battle as a warrior, and he liked the feel of it. He expresses a kind of respect for piccolo as their fight reaches its end, even though it is couched in his trademark, planet-sized, ego. It was an encounter that took the first step toward redeeming him, and setting him down the path we would see him walking in Super.
...and then a bug ate him… Yeah, it’s hard to stay arrogant after you’ve been eaten by a bug, so that helped too. My big sticking point is that it’s often assumed that if Cell hadn’t screwed up the flow of events, the modern androids would have eventually became their future selves, but I think there’s a chance for their redemption even without Cell, provided at some point in time 18 meets Krillin and 17 fights the fused Kami-Piccolo.
Part 3: 17 in DBS and the Tournament of Power
Ten years pass, Android 17 is, if not in his thirties, pushing up close to ‘em for certain. His personality is now quite placid, and he’s a family man, carrying on 16’s spirit by protecting nature, and carrying on the fire that Piccolo lit in him a decade ago by training constantly to improve his technique. Now, I maintain that his character is still consistent, but does he BEHAVE differently now? Of course he does. Look, I don’t know how old you are, reader person, but I promise you, when more than a few seasons separate you from your teenage years, you will look back at who you were as a teenager, and the things you did… and you will cringe. Hard. Heck, I’m in my thirties now, and I look back at the things I said and did in my early twenties and cringe, sometimes. Growing older is a game of constantly realizing how ridiculous you used to be and hoping you’re less ridiculous now.
So yeah, he is more mature, but the three elements that are the center of his character are intact. He is a merciless gadfly throughout his entire run in Super. He exchanges affectionate barbs with his sister when he meets her daughter, he teases Krillin’s nervousness around him, despite expressing to Goku that he was fond of the man, and considered him his brother, and in general never openly acting like he took anything he encountered as seriously as he really did.
He still tends to treat everything around him like a giant game, made most evident by all of his interactions with Universe 2, but most of all with Ribrianne and her Kamikaze Fireballs, playing the role they provided him with abandon and gusto- when Ribrianne accused him of being a villain from some kind of magical girl anime… he promptly starts hamming it up and acting like a villain in some kind of magical girl anime!
He’s no longer the loud mouthed braggart he was as a teenager, sure, but his faith in himself remains strong. It’s just that it’s no longer childish, absolute arrogance, and instead has been tempered into a realistic confidence in his own abilities. When faced with insurmountable odds, he remains calm and studies his situation carefully, never moving recklessly, but also never losing faith in his ability to eventually find a way to overcome the situation he finds himself in.
The tournament of power DOES introduce an important arc to 17’s character, though, and it’s a surprisingly subtle one. Sadly, I’ve already typed up 2,000 words on the subject, so I’m going to go ahead and stop here for now. This is how I perceive the character, and why I like him so much. If anyone wants me to, I may type up the second essay on 17 I have rattling around in my head sometime, and reveal how 17 accomplishes something impossible: makes JIREN an interesting antagonist.
I got nostalgic yesterday, and decided to re-read the “Thousand Year Blood War” arc of Bleach again. I felt like I had a lot to say on it, after letting it rest for a couple years, so I started scripting a video, working title: “Did Bleach’s Final Arc Have Potential?”
... definitely gonna make sure my audio is set up properly before I record it this time, though.
Two episodes into this series now. I started it hoping to find another Fate/zero, but it’s starting to look like it’s going to be another Apocrypha. I love the show’s visual style, it reminds me of Gankutsuo, but I feel like they’re wasting Extra’s strong suits.
Extra had a complicated back story, but on a chapter-to-chapter level it was one of the most straightforward Holy Grail Wars: 128 people are fighting, you get your opponent’s name on day 1, on day 5 you fight to the death, the winner advances to the next level. The anime adaption is... convolution for its own sake.
I was hoping it’d be another series I could use to introduce outsiders to the franchise, but at least it’ll be fun for established fans. Grand Order servants are given cameos, and there’s something oddly endearing about Hakuno’s over-abundance of chill.
Today’s contribution: A video project I made last year analyzing the characters of Fate/zero. I’m actually a touch ashamed of how this one turned out. I didn’t have a sub-amp, so I had to use a USB microphone and then try to boost the audio feed with audacity which... didn’t turn out quite as I envisioned.
Still, while the production values didn’t turn out as I hoped, I’m fairly proud of the essay itself, so it’s worthy of a place on my blog, I think.
The first post, and the last post I’ll be making today, is this, an introduction to my light novel project. I’m already about 25,000 words into it, and have been uploading the completed chapters here:
I’ll also be reposting the chapters here, one per week, due in part to a copying error I made in chapter one, which resulted in the date stamps I provided between scenes being incorrect. FF.net has been... less than cooperative with my attempts to fix the issue.
Fate Counterfeit tells the story of the anti-grail war, an event in the distant past of the Fate/Extra universe, which resulted in the eradication of all magic from the world, and thus set the stage for the setting of the proper series.
At the behest of a strange invitation, seven strangers gather. Each of these seven souls carries a wish so strong that they would be willing to kill and die for even the faintest chance of seeing that wish become reality.
The story is largely character-driven, and I know that it’s here that I’m probably hampering my ability to draw an audience. With two exceptions, one of whom doesn’t appear until a decent way through the work, the entire cast is original, with only the lore, the universe, and the holy grail war itself tying them to the franchise. As such, I can’t fault anyone who passes on it due to it simply not being what they’re looking for in a fanfiction.
Having said that, though, this story is probably my opus, and is assuredly a passion project of mine, so I feel compelled to complete it, and have a decent amount of confidence in the concept, even if my skill with prose is lacking, to say the least.
So, I welcome any who would wish to read it! If you’re unfamiliar with the Fate franchise, I tried to write it in such a way as to make it accessible for an outsider. “Tried” is definitely the operative word there, though. The lore of the franchise is so complex that it can take seeing it in practice to understand how it goes together, and even with as much exposition as I felt comfortable cramming into each scene it may prove a little confusing to a newcomer.
As always, thank you for your time, and if you happen to read it, let me know what you think!
