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She-Ra’s Sword, Less Beacon than Burden
Hey whatup, it’s me, back at it again with the painful meta things. So i’ve been having a thought, as one does, about our favorite traumatized hero, Adora. Because of course it’s about Adora.
I’ve gone over Adora’s self sacrifice, and her martyr mindset before. And i’ve unpacked how she got to this point, where she readily and willingly sacrifices herself for others. And after talking with a friend earlier I realized something about Adora and She-ra.
Nearly everyone in the show, who saw She-Ra particularly in those first 4 seasons, viewed the sword as a good thing. As a beacon of hope and strength. Civilians see it and they see a hero, a savior. It’s a symbol of strength. There’s a few exceptions to this, the main one being, Catra. Who hates the sword from a very early stage. Though a lot of her hatred of it stems from the fact that the sword is the reason Adora leaves rather than what it represents.
Other than Catra, no one else really seems to challenge this image. The portal is the first instance where this image is challenged. Because the sword is at the center of the crumbling false reality. It’s destroying everything around them, and for the first time, we see what the sword truly is. It isn’t strength or hope, it’s not a symbol of a savior. It’s destruction. And the proof is on the pudding, because to close the portal, to save everyone and the world, Angella takes the sword, and in the process, functionally dies. Taking up the sword is the way to stop this destruction, but it takes Angella’s life to do it.
We don’t get another instance of this until season 4. With Adora finding out that the sword is not She-Ra, it isn’t the source of her. It is a weapon, it is a collar, it is a punishment. The sword's purpose is to control She-Ra and to use Etheria and it’s magic as a weapon of mass destruction.
So how does this relate to the myth of Atlas? Well, She-Ra, much like Atlas, is a primordial and powerful being. And like Atlas, She-Ra was chained. Etheria, tampered with and put under the control of the First Ones and their technology. The sword, fashioned to control the planet, and put in the hands of a young woman.
The burden of the world, on the shoulders of one person. Atlas is forced to hold up the sky, lest the world be crushed without him. Adora is forced to take up the sword and the Mantle of She-Ra lest Etheria be destroyed and the universe with it.
And it’s interesting that we don’t see anyone really understand that this is a burden. That She-Ra isn’t just some goddess capable of doing anything. That she has limits. And you would think that after the sword is broken, that that would fix everything. But, how does Atlas live when his burden is gone? How does one just move on from holding up the sky?
We see it in season 5, Adora desperately trying to hold onto the burden. Pushing herself and risking her life, despite the fact that she no longer has that power. Adora accepted the burden of the world on her shoulders, and she didn’t know how to cope without it.
What more perfect example of Adora being Atlas do we have than Episode 4, Stranded. With a cavern crumbling around her and her friends, the only exit about to collapse. What does plain old Adora do?
325 notes • Posted 2021-07-12 05:34:49 GMT
Hello! It's me, back at it again with the painful meta.
As per usual, it starts with a conversation with a wonderful friend.
And they brought up how season 3 and 4 Catra's motivation was reminiscent of Adora. And that made me think and have a realization. Because it's true!
When it comes to Catra and Adora, often times people seem to view them as very different, many people look at Adora as heroic and Catra as villainous, and canonically, that is the way they are outwardly depicted. But, let's take a look a their motivations. Because I think we'll find that they were much more similar than they appear at first glance.
Adora. She is the protagonist, the hero, the martyr. From the start, we see Adora actively trying to do good. From not attacking Thaymor when she finds out it's peaceful, to literally defecting and betraying the Horde. To defending people who she barely knows against the Horde. Adora seems to be the typical selfless hero.
But why does she do it? See, at first we aren't given much of a reason, it's just how she is, and that is accepted because we're used to those kinds of heroic characters. The kind that just are heroes. But that's not Adora.
I've gone over it before but let's recap for clarity.
We find out over time that Adora is a victim of abuse. She was manipulated and mentally abused by Shadow Weaver from infancy, and eventually Light Hope. Weaver taught her to carry all other people's burdens, taught her that she is worthless unless she is helpful. Adora was raised to think that she only matters when she can give something. So it makes sense in hindsight that she goes to such lengths to protect strangers. To give up her friends in the horde to protect people who didn't deserve to die.
No one is born evil (except maybe Shadow Weaver cuz fuck her.) But Adora isn't unique in her kindness, no. Catra is very much the same. Catra is shown throughout the show to be a lot of things, cunning, clever, sometimes cruel. But she is also shown to be kind, compassionate, and genuinely caring.
People sometimes forget, but Catra looked out for Adora as much as Adora looked out for her. When Entrapta got left behind, Catra didn't imprison and abuse her. She listened, and saw someone who also felt alone and abandoned, and made Entrapta feel wanted again.
Hell, Catra tried to empathize with Shadow Weaver when she was imprisoned. The very woman who beat and abused her, and when the tables were turned Catra showed kindness.
Catra however, didn't end up like Adora. She didn't end up the traditional hero. Why is that? Well, it stems from her abuse. Just like Adora, Catra is abused by Weaver. But their abuse is vastly different. Where Adora is made to feel worthless if she isn't helpful. Catra was made to feel worthless, period.
Everything she does is not enough. Everything she is is wrong or bad or a failure.
So Catra becomes angry and spiteful. She gets a chip on her shoulder and a need to prove herself as more than nothing, to prove. that she is worth something.
We can see that when Catra starts spiralling in season 3 and 4, she starts to ignore her wants and needs. We see Catra put everything she has, all of herself into the mission of proving that she isn't worthless like she was made to feel. She ignores her bodies needs, sleep and food and socialization. She ignores everything for the mission. And isn't that so very familiar?
Adora, from the start, does the same thing. She sacrifices her relationships, her purpose, for the greater good. When she's told she is destined to protect Etheria, Adora accepts that mission, accepts this overwhelming burden. She throws herself into it fully... or, nearly. See, Adora's motivation from the start is based in the fact that just like Catra she is at her core, kind.
So now that we see both Catra and Adora's motivations, how are they similar? I mean, Catra's prime motivator seems to be spite and Adora's seems to be her overcranking that kindness, right?
These two motivations are not the core motivators. They are symptoms of the actual motivation that both Catra and Adora share. Because the thing that they both want desperately, the thing that their abuse preyed on, is the same thing that everyone wants. Catra and Adora's motivation is the desire to be loved, unconditionally.
See, Catra being told her whole life she is worthless, makes her spiteful. Because she doesn't want that to be true, but she's afraid that it is. And at the start, Adora is the only person who challenges that fear. But then she leaves, and she misunderstands Catra. And she loses the only thing that made her feel like she mattered. So she becomes the villain, if she is unloveable. She will prove that she is strong.
Adora on the other hand is told her whole life that she only matters as long as she can be useful. And it shows in her eagerness to help, her eagerness to please. Because if she can protect the rebels if she can save this village, if she can stop the war, maybe someone will love her. Maybe that'll be enough?
We see both of them crumble because of the same thing. They want to be loved for who they are.
The core about both of them is the desire for love and the lack of it causing them to spiral.
One of the many reasons season 5 is so incredible is this. Because Catra is convinced that she is unloveable. She is convinced of the very thing that has haunted her for her whole life. Because Adora left. Scorpia left. She betrayed Entrapta. Double Trouble betrayed her. And she lost everything she worked for. We see how bad it is when Catra says "There's no one left that cares about me." Catra has fully succumb to the abuse the Weaver put her through. And so, if there's nothing in her worth loving, than at least she will allow Adora to have something.
Catra, after everything, after pretending to hate Adora for so long. Returns to the thing that made her and Adora so close, she returned to the love that defines her, and she gave herself to ensure some happiness for Adora. She sacrifices herself to protect Adora, just like Adora had protected her when they were little.
And it doesn't work! That's the thing, because Adora doesn't think like that. Because despite how much Catra was afraid that she was unloveable, Adora always knew she wasn't. How could she be when Adora loved her?
And Adora saves her. She finds Catra after all this. After rock bottom, and she tells her that she never hated her. And it's such a shock to the system. Because Catra was so sure. She was so so sure that no one could love her. Until she wasn't. Until this beautiful blonde idiot dragged her kicking and screaming out of her despair and said "You matter to me!"
And it's so much. This one act from Adora starts unraveling all the manipulation Weaver put her through. And for once Catra believes it.
And then there's Adora. Adora who gave up everything to be She-Ra. Now just Adora. No goddess, no divine purpose. Just a woman and her staff. Tired. Adora, just like Catra, is convinced that she is unloveable. That no matter what she does how she turns and twists. She's not good enough. And then she saves Catra. And for a moment there's a glimmer(😏) of hope. They're together again and it's so much better. And then the failsafe happens. And it's just like at the start, Catra begging her not to do it, but it's harder now. Because if she doesn't who will? If she doesn't then someone else has to die? Because what? Because of her selfishness? And she doesn't want to take it anymore. She's so tired of this. Of constantly fighting and hurting and losing Catra. But someone has to and there's no other way and they're running out of time. So once again. Adora takes the burden.
And once again, she loses Catra. Once again Adora is unloveable, because she's too much, not enough. Once again Catra is left behind, once again Adora doesn't choose her.
380 notes • Posted 2021-08-27 18:50:58 GMT
Adora and the unraveling of a Martyr.
Alright, look, I know, I KNOW that I literally just wrote a meta post yesterday, but I'm writing another one, so like, deal with it.
Talking with another friend and having the realization that of all the characters in the show, no one fights for Adora, no one but Catra.
Now I get that this sounds a bit harsh, but let me explain.
Throughout the show we see Adora fighting for everyone, her goals genuinely kind. And it's what makes her such a good hero. Adora has always been the "golden girl" and with that comes the assumption that she doesn't need to be fought for.
Now, I hear some of you saying "well, what about the best friend squad and the princesses." And that's a fair point. Let's look at them.
We see that throughout the show the rebellion is fighting for the people and for good, and while these ideals theoretically include Adora, she is not the focus of this.
We can see this more apparent with how she is treated by the rebels. Namely, how they treat her and She-ra as interchangeable. This casual combining of Adora the person and She-ra the near goddess, feeds into Adora's Marty complex. It attributes saving the world to Adora, the person.
And we see how this extends to how she is treated even when she does crack. Both when Weaver stalks her at Mystacor, and when Adora is planning the raid on the outpost that she suspects Catra is at. These are both moment of vulnerability for Adora, and yet, no one notices the underlying cracks in her proverbial armor. She is significantly disoriented, desperate, and honestly kind of manic, and it gets overlooked as being part of a larger problem.
Glimmer and Bow, they are good friends, and they offer support and help. But they don't understand and don't fight for Adora. And to be fair, we can't blame them, how could they know how bad Adora's mental health is when Adora herself doesn't realize it either?
Now, before we move on to Catra and how she unravels this, I would like to throw in a couple of special mentions.
Mara and Angela. Now, these two are possibly the only characters who you could say do fight for Adora in some way. Mara, she sacrifices herself to try to save people, but also to prevent the next She-ra from having to suffer from her mistakes. She does not do this directly for Adora, but in a way she does. The other note for Mara is before the heart. It's unclear whether this is truly Mara or Adora's hallucination, but if it is Mara, this is her yet again actively acting to help Adora, and I'd argue this is much more significant because her only concern is Adora's happiness.
Now, onto the more clear choice, Angela. We see Angela, even early on, realize that Adora is still just a young girl struggling. She may be She-ra, but she is a person who is anxious and scared, but wants to help. And I think Angela's distancing herself is the thing that really hinders her here. Because she does fall into a similar trap of ignoring the signs of Adora's terrible mental health and lack of self preservation.
It isn't until the portal that Angela realizes her mistake, and chooses to rectify it, chooses to fight for Adora when no one else has. In the portal we see Angela acknowledging Adora's willingness to die. She sees this young girl, begging Angela to let her essentially take her own life, and I think this really puts it together in her mind. That Adora is deeply troubled, that no one has looked at her and told her she is allowed to choose herself. So Angella chooses Adora, and she sacrifices herself because Adoea shouldn't have to.
Now, season 5 is where things change a bit. Because we see people noticing. Adora is throwing herself in harm's way and is exhausting herself, and this, finally, tips the rebels off. We see Mermista and Frosta call out Adora's recklessness, and though they're not looking deeper, they do notice. And this is also where we see Bow start piecing together the truth. Because Bow realizes that this isn't just a quirky thing Adora does. This is Adora.
Now, Catra. Catra is the only person who genuinely fights FOR Adora. As in, her motivation is Adora herself. At the beginning of the show, this is a more selfish reason, as she is fighting to keep Adora, to make her stay. And though this is unhealthy, it holds the seed for her saving Adora in the end.
By season 5, Catra's evil persona has crumbled. And we see her reliving her childhood and hallucinating moments from her childhood. Happiness with Adora. With a combination of relating to Glimmer, and Horde Prime threatening Adora's life. Catra makes her choice. She chooses to fight for Adora again. But this time, not to keep Adora, but to let Adora live.
This is huge for Catra, and also for Adora. Because Catra tries to sacrifice herself for the martyr. Catra does for Adora. What Adora was manipulated into doing for everyone else. And this trend continues. Because after she saves Glimmer, we see another moment where Bow realizes how messed up Adora really is, and so does Glimmer. The episode with the star siblings, we see Adora once again at risk of losing people, and though she's just Adora, she stands in the crumbling tunnel and uses herself to try and prop it up.
Thankfully her inner she-ra saves her, but Adora was willing to die there, and Glimmer and Bow saw that. And we see how this bothers them both. They were actively trying to get her to save herself.
I think this is part of why Glimmer supported going back for Catra, both because Catra showed that there is good in her, and because she understands that Adora is ashamed of wanting.
Now, Catra, Catra isn't done, because in their youth, Catra was the only one around who really called out how terrible Weaver was. And though Adora was too gullible at the time to realize it, that stuck. And when Catra again, calls out Weaver for manipulating Adora at the failsafe, and again when she runs. We see Catra's true motive. It's Adora. Because all she ever wanted was Adora. And for the longest time Catra mistakenly thought that Adora wanted something else, that Adora didn't want her. She realized that Adora doesn't want. She doesn't let herself want. Because all her life she wasn't allowed to want. She wasn't allowed to live for herself. And nothing hurts more than that realization for her. So Catra fights. She steps up to Weaver, for Adora. At the failsafe, she even calls out the rest of the rebels, for allowing this, for not stopping Adora's self sacrificing. She gets angry on Adora's behalf that even her friends didn't notice or seem to care that Adora is so willing to die. They let her do it.
And she fights Adora too. Because Adora accepts this as her destiny. Catra, when she runs, calls out Adora too. Because no one fights for Adora, not even Adora herself. No one but Catra. Catra who stands up to Weaver, for Adora. Catra who calls out the rebels, for Adora. Catra who fights Adora on her martyr logic, for Adora. Catra who comes back and fights a monster she can't beat, for Adora. Catra whi refuses to let Adora die alone, because she refuses to let Adora feel like she's not worth anything. Adora may fight for the universe, but Catra fights for her. And honestly that makes me fucking cry.
384 notes • Posted 2021-05-07 03:57:16 GMT
Do y'all ever think about how in season 5 both Catra and Adora threw their lives away for each other?
Do you think about how Catra turned on Prime to try and save Adora?
Do you think how Adora, with no powers came for her anyway? Faced down the army that conquered the universe, as just Adora?
Do you think about how when Catra fell down that pit, the same one that killed one of the prime bodies, Adora jumped without hesitation?
Do you think about Adora, legs shattered, body broken, crawling to Catra's side?
Do you think about Catra, watching Adora step one trap and go up in flames?
Do you think about how, while everyone else was frozen still, Catra jumped in immediately?
Do you think about how Catra came back? How she knew that Adora was in trouble and god damn it, she wasn't going to leave Adora. Not now, never again? How she came with her to the heart despite how much it hurt and refused to leave Adora to die alone?
Do you ever think about that? No? Y-yeah... me neither...
501 notes • Posted 2021-11-11 18:09:24 GMT
Quick meta for you folks.
I was talking with a lovely friend about the failsafe episode. And had a thought.
I've brought it up before, but Catra is the only person who tries to stop Adora.
Shadow Weaver, the BFS, the rest of the rebellion. No one stops her, in fact. They either go with it, or encourage Adora to lay down her life.
And I know I've talked about this before. But Catra is the only person to reject this. She yells at Weaver and the Rebellion for once again giving Adora the burden. "Why does it always have to be Adora?"
And I had a thought about this specific moment. Because this is wildly different from Catra's thoughts near the start.
Early on in the show, Catra views Adora as having abandoned her. She seemed to view Adora leaving her as Adora seeing a way out of the Horde and taking it. Ditching Catra to have a glittery pretty life.
It feels like after joining the rebellion herself, Catra actually sees a future, where she is happy. Where Adora is happy. And to have that hope, and then see Adora throw away her life, to see Adora throw away her own happiness and future, for a CHANCE that the people around her might get to keep theirs puts the truth into perspective for Catra.
Adora didn't leave for greener pastures, she left because her wants, her life, her happiness and future are worthless compared to those of anyone else.
Catra's anger in this scene is very much directed at Weaver, who did this to Adora, but it's also at the rebellion who keep letting Adora break herself for them, and to some extent, I think she's angry with herself, that she wasted so much time because she didn't realize this terrible truth about Adora. That Adora doesn't value anything about herself. That Adora only values herself in her ability to sacrifice.
And when Adora takes the failsafe, especially after seeing Weaver seemingly get into Adora's head again, she reverts to being angry at Adora, for not standing up for herself. "When do you get to choose, Adora?"
The big difference in this repeat situation is that early on, Catra didn't have context for Adora's side of this, but she also couldn't imagine a better future than her and Adora ruling the horde.
Now she could, she could imagine a happy life with Adora, she knew that all of this was due to Weaver. And Catra chose to fight back.
Catra chooses to come back. Not realizing that much like she confronted Weaver, Adora confronted Weaver too.
Catra standing up for Adora gave Adora the courage and the push to want. To stand up for herself a little. To care about herself, even if just a little.
And that's crucial to the finale. Because when Catra tells her she loves her, she offers Adora the reality of a happy future together.
It's no longer just the dream of a dying Adora. It's possible. It's tangible. And that, that give Adora the strength to stand up, to survive. And I think that's so beautiful.
Catra realizing that Adora didn't leave because the rebellion offered her a picture perfect life, but because they asked her to help, and Adora has been conditioned to give and give is as important as Adora realizing that Catra wants to be cared about, and to be listened to, and to have her agency.
They understand each other finally, and that gives them both the courage to let their love out.
That's all I wanted to say. It ended up longer than expected, as per usual XD. Thanks for reading!
837 notes • Posted 2021-08-19 19:19:45 GMT
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