I've been thinking, for the past few days, about why it's so strange to me, to hear people say that Hordak oppressed people. Or that the Etherian Horde was oppressive. Or just... insinuating that Hordak and his subordinates are somehow in a position of power on Etheria.
And I mean, I've written before about why I find Hordak far more sympathetic than I find the Princesses, but this isn't that. This is more... A disconnect. Between how people seem to view Hordak and the Horde and my personal understanding of oppression. Namely: the sort of "usual" social hierarchy of oppressed and oppressor don't seem to work here.
The patterns don't coincide.
When we look at our world, our societies, social power tends to be divided by wealth. Now, of course race and religion and gender and all of these other factors come into play, but financial resources hold tremendous importance. Members of oppressed minorities are more likely, statistically, to hold less wealth. Not always, obviously. There are no hard rules. But enough that it comes out in data.
And even in societal majorities, there is still the divide between those that hold great wealth, and those that do not.
My point being as follows: the members of the "upper class" tend to be oppressive because they have the financial means with which to exert control. Politically, economically, whatever. They are the ones oppressing, while the "lower class," the working class, tend to suffer under their wants and whims. It's an oversimplication, to be sure, but the general sense of it is all that matters for this discussion.
Essentially: the upper class oppresses the working class. The working class doesn't oppress the upper class.
When we look at Hordak and the Etherian Horde, and when we look at the Alliance... who is working class, and who lives in absolute luxury?
Our protagonists are literal monarchs living in literal palaces with literal magic powers. They don't perform physical labor. They don't have "jobs" in the sense of earning money or earning their keep. And even during supposed wartime, they enjoy plentiful resources and delicious food and pointless luxuries.
The level of luxury is even played for laughs, sort of, when Adora first joins the Horde and has no idea how to live in a room that appears designed around impractical pampering.
But it also just kind of... borders on ridiculous? Like...they go to a magical floating island to relax at a spa. On a cloud beach. During a major war that we are supposed to believe they are suffering tremendously from. We're supposed to feel sad for them. While they're lounging on the cloud beach.
Compare this to the Etherian Horde. And to Hordak himself.
There are no fancy rooms with decorative waterfalls in the Horde. Not for regular Horde members, not even for higher-ranking individuals.
The members of the Etherian Horde absolutely perform physical labor. They have few, if any, luxuries to speak of. Their entire lives appear to consist of working to earn and maintain their place in the Horde. And there are absolutely no spa days.
As for Hordak? Well, you might say: "CF, Hordak is in an upper class position; he calls himself Lord and sits on a throne and-"
And I'm gonna stop you right there, because Hordak is a purpose-bred slave play-acting a god-monarch to earn back his place as a purpose-bred slave. He and his clone brothers are actual servants of Prime: made to do everything from cleaning to serving meals to fighting on the front lines of Prime's wars. They are true, all-around workers.
Actually, the little details regarding Hordak and "work" are so interesting. Because he absolutely works, in a way that the protagonists really don't seem to: with little to no visible time for relaxation and absolute zero indulgence in luxury. We so often see him in his lab, working with tools, with his hands. And after Entrapta makes him his new armor, we see him using it to perform significant physical labor. Labor that, as "lord," he could likely have delegated to others. But he didn't. Because Hordak, at his core, is a worker.
Now, does he have a throne? Sure! But it's a throne designed to be a tool, a prop of sorts to help him mimic Prime. It's not an actual piece of comfortable furniture. And it's not somewhere where Hordak appears comfortable or leisurely. It's just... a tool of the job. I mean... just look at how he sits in it, compared to Prime. Prime, who is absolutely "upper class" and has all of the fanciness to show for it. Prime who just lounges on his throne, secure in the knowledge that he belongs there.
And beyond the throne, in his Sanctum? Not a drop of luxury to be found. Just machinery for Hordak's work. And tools for his work. And a bunch of junk, because he's pathologically unable to throw anything away for Personal Reasons. Totally unlike, say, Glimmer's room. Or Prime's trophy and dining rooms. We don't even see a place for him to rest from his work, though extrapolating from the pods we see other clones in, we can guess that it's likely not a soft, fluffy, copiously-pillowed bed.
Because that's the thing about Hordak: he's the leader of the Horde, but he's still a member of the working class. He's play-acting a lord, but he doesn't actually enjoy any of the leisure or luxury that comes with that. Rather, despite his position in the Etherian Horde hierarchy, he has far more in common with his own cadets than with his hierarchical equals in Bright Moon.
Which is why the patterning for oppression is so off, for me. People are trying to convince me that a bunch of working class people, including potential orphans and an actual cult-slave, are oppressing the wealthy royals? It just. Doesn't compute. Like... even when Mermista's capital city is destroyed, she still has the means to lounge about in a fancy bathtub, eating ice cream. It just doesn't carry the same weight as, say, Hordak sitting amongst the trash-wreckage of his Sanctum in season four. Mermista is upset, but she's still pampered. Hordak is upset, and he's just... upset. With nothing comforting to help him.
It's just such a disconnect. I can't view the protagonists as "oppressed" when they have the means and resources to essentially avoid any true fallout from the war. While Hordak and his subordinates, supposedly dominant and oppressive, live in spartan quarters devoid of even the slightest shred of opulence or comfort.
Perhaps the series could have circumvented this if it had made our protagonists members of Etheria's less-royal population? Or if it had portrayed them as true refugees, as they are under Prime's aggression in season five. But it doesn't. It has them hanging out in palaces, going to parties and spas, eating sleep-over cake while Hordak gets injured by his glitchy health-care machine because he doesn't have anything better.
Anyway. I don't know if all of this makes sense. It's just. Such a weird thing to me. And makes it hard to see the Etherian Horde as "the oppressors."
