abandoned @glimzsparkle - Tumblr Blog

spop: she-ra is the most powerful woman in the universe. she's basically a goddess, she has magical powers and a weapon, and she's the destined savior of etheria.

spop: oh, and this is catra. she's a cat-human hybrid with no magical powers or training. she doesn't have her own weapon and she's not particularly muscular. but she always defeats she-ra and nearly kills her multiple times.

mad-not-disappointed

“forced herself to become the villain” girl be ffr. catra didn't force herself to do shit. no one had any expectations on her, she could have easily escaped the horde and started a new life if she wanted to.

her actions were her own choice, no one else's. her opening the portal especially was 100% her choice. everyone was against it, in fact, even entrapta and hordak, who were on her side until then. stop trying to woobify her and start holding her accountable for her actions.

antisociafriend-deactivated2024

I kinda miss the Best Friends Squad ❤️🥲

cursedmerlinedits

this one is blessed

ansdrela

glimzsparkle

Shadow Weaver showing 'motherly' care to Glimmer.

#glimweaver #guilty as charged for making this gifset #thanks to that person who reblogged and reminded me of this #okay byeeee

adorawasright

I really wish someone stood up for Adora in season 5, the same way Perfuma did for Scorpia. Perfuma actively calls out Catra for hurting Scorpia, and it makes me mad that nobody did the same when it came to Adora. Hell, not even GLIMMER is seen being protective of Adora. I hated that the only person who stands up for her is the same one that hurts her and guilt-trips her. It's really, truly not fair.

mad-not-disappointed

"ew glimmadora is such a boring vanilla ship" yeah, and i'll take the vanilla ship over the toxic romanticized mess any day

mad-not-disappointed

catra: gaslighting adora

fans: omg she just wants adora to stay with her 🥺

catra: physically assaulting adora in every way possible

fans: the sexual tension 😩🔥

catra: kidnapping and tying up adora

fans: omg this is so kinky 🥵

catra: verbally abusing and degrading adora

fans: she has the right to be mad at adora for leaving 😔

adora: pushes catra off a bed once

fans: omg she's so toxic 😡😡 catra has suffered enough and adora is abusing her too now what a bitch

glimzsparkle

This is a RP partner search post. Preffered ships are in the gifs.

Also enjoy some hugs.

adorawasright

i will never forgive spop for all the "adora is so dumb lol how could she NOT realize catra was in love with her all along" jokes that are everywhere in the fandom

adora-deserves-better

“Catr*dora was always going to be endgame! If you were blindsided by it then that’s on you!”

…which explains why it needed to blatantly rip off Glimmadora at every turn.

adora-deserves-better

Unfriendly reminder that Catra and Adora are referred to as sisters/Shadow Weaver’s daughters by:

Official character sheets (photos not mine)

AJ Michalka (Catra’s voice actor)

She-Ra - AJ Michalka and Lauren Ash Interview (WonderCon 2019): “And to me, there’s like a sister bond a little bit there, that ends up becoming actually even deeper. Gosh, in a way it’s like… I feel almost like their relationship, their friendship is like… like there’s a sisterhood there. And I feel like it’s really important and I kinda have that with my sister. I don’t know if this is gonna make sense down the road, this interview, based on the episodes that are going to come out, but there’s a sisterhood between those two girls that no one can break. And I have that with my sister.” (0:53)

She-Ra’s Cast Gives Insight into Catra & Adora’s Relationship: “I was always at the foot of her bed, in a way she was my older sister, even though she was my best friend.” (2:44)

TV Tropes

Children and adopted siblings who watched the show

The She-Ra wiki

Catr*dora shippers themselves

Are any of these sources irrefutable on their own? Certainly no.

But the fact that that this particular reading is so common definitely says something about the way their relationship was written.

In addition, compare Zuko talking about Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender) versus Catra talking to/about Adora.

“Everything always came easy to her.”

“Adora gets everything she wants!”

“She’s a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her.”

“Admit it, you love being her favorite.”

“My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born.”

“Then again, you’re special. That’s what Shadow Weaver always said.”

Both pairs of characters fit the Golden Child and the Black Sheep dichotomy (also known as the Favorite and the Scapegoat), in which one child is put on a pedestal and held up to unreasonable expectations while the other is constantly put down and demeaned. This dynamic is exclusive to siblings who grew up under a narcissistic parent — Ozai and Shadow Weaver respectively.

Here is another great post discussing the similarities between Adora & Catra and Gamora & Nebula from MCU, who are also sisters.

Common counter-arguments:

“The Horde has no concept of family!”

Yet Adora still verbally admits to seeing Shadow Weaver as a mom (without asking Glimmer to clarify what the heck a “mom” is).

And Shadow Weaver doesn’t shy away from calling her “my child”, either.

Humans — especially children — naturally seek out bonds, no matter what environment they grew up in. It’s ingrained in our psyche. You can’t just tell them not to see their caretaker as a parent and expect it to work.

Maybe the Horde did discourage familial attachments. But since telling people not to fall in love doesn’t stop them from falling in love, why wouldn’t the same apply to platonic relationships?

“Only Adora was her daughter! Catra was just a scapegoat!”

Throughout the show it’s evident that Catra desperately desires Shadow Weaver’s approval, not unlike the way an abused child craves recognition from a parent who has always denied it. This isn’t explicitly spelled out, but the fans picked up on it anyway:

And don’t forget about edits that use quotes from another abusive mother & daughter relationship.

Toxic parents are still parents because “parent” is not an inherently positive term, it’s a type of relationship.

“‘Mother figure’ is not the same as ‘mother’!”

How are they functionally different?

I usually define “mother figure” as someone who acts motherly yet didn’t actually raise the person in question — which is why Glimmadora is not incest even though Angella is this to Adora — but that explanation obviously doesn’t work here because Shadow Weaver did in fact raise both of them.

Unless you can specify exactly where the line is drawn between “adoptive mother” and “mother figure”, it’s a very cheap argument: “Shadow Weaver is their parent in every way that counts, but not really because I watered down the term by adding a second word to it. Gotcha!”.

“Having the same parent doesn’t make you siblings!”

This is the most puzzling one so far because… yes, that’s literally the definition.

“You’re just trying to no-homo their relationship!”

It is true that a lot of same-sex relationship in media are described as brotherly or sisterly simply to avoid any romantic implications, and homophobic fans tend to run with it.

In most if not all cases, however, such interpretation is subjective, since there is no basis for the characters in question to be actual siblings (having the same parent). This is clearly not true for Catra and Adora.

Moreover, SPoP has plenty of other romantic-coded same-sex relationship that aren’t treated this way. I’ve never seen anyone say that Catra and Scorpia remind them of siblings, and the only people trying to frame Adora and Glimmer as sisters are… wait for it… Catr*dora shippers.

I wonder why would they do this. Surely not to blatantly shift the blame to someone else, right?

Bottom line:

Catr*dora has incestous undertones whether you like it or not. And if certain rabid stans could kindly shut up when actual adopted siblings tell them that SPoP handled this topic terribly, that would be nice.

(P. S. This post is not an invitation to harass people whose posts I used as examples. I’m not trying to attack them, I’m pointing out the obvious: Shadow Weaver is near-unanimously acknowledged as Catra and Adora’s mother, making them sisters by definition, and any attempt to deny this boils down to the idea that adopted siblings “don’t count”. Which is problematic for a number of reasons!)

mad-not-disappointed

the fact that c//a has more similarities to sibling relationships than romantic relationships is very telling. the way i see them is exactly like relationships between Zuko and Azula, Vi and Jinx, Claudia and Soren, etc. why? because of the golden child and scapegoat dynamic that is most commonly seen in sibling relationships, both in media and irl. one child is valued more because they are more talented or capable (Adora, Vi, Claudia, Azula) while the other is mistreated or ignored because they are troublesome or not capable enough (Catra, Jinx, Soren, Zuko). this can happen in other types of relationships, but it is rare because this differentiation is usually made by parental figures who try to pit their children against each other. there are very few romantic relationships that have this dynamic, even if one of the partners are arguably more capable or noticed than the other.

#So I'm not the only one who thinks that ship is motherfucking forced but I like their dynamic and the art are amazing ok #Thanks for coming to my Ted talk #spop criticism #spop salt