Thoughts About Lonnie: Part 1
Lonnie should have been a more prominent character in the show than she ended up being. She’s brought up multiple times when the early days of both Adora and Catra in the Horde are discussed, she’s the only other character in the Horde besides Catra who confronts Adora after she defected. She has these moments where she’s opposing Catra, no matter how small. It feels like in that one D&D-inspired episode in S2 that she might be taking a step towards taking on a leadership role. And it feels like in general that she’s supposed to be a prominent member of the Horde, at least as a side character.
Idk, it just seems like more could and should have been done concerning Lonnie (and the other Horde Kids), but we never really got to see any of that. I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot, especially during my re-watch of the series, and I think I have a good role for Lonnie to play in the story that would provide interesting results: let Lonnie be promoted to Force Captain after S1. It moves somebody new onto the board that none of the other previous players were expecting, and it could yield several interesting results for both the story and the characters.
Lonnie could pose as good opposition to Bow, actually. When I think of what I would do with Bow, I always go to that aspect of him shown in the Dryll episode of S1. He inspires the common man to rise up against the Horde and pitch in towards the war effort because he understands that they can’t just wait for the princesses to swoop in and fix things. He’s worked hard to show that he can, in fact, stand alongside the princesses and contribute meaningfully despite not having magic. Well, why not have Lonnie act on that same level? A lot of the time she’s not focused on the bigger fish, she’s focused on the multiple villages and cities that dot Etheria’s landscape. I think Lonnie genuinely believes in the propaganda the Horde feeds them, thinking that the princesses must be stopped and the people under them must be liberated.
Heck, maybe some of the villages and cities readily fall into Horde control with Lonnie at the forefront of that process because of the corrupt local government they have. Some are struggling to get by, and here comes Lonnie to help them out via creating trade routes behind enemy lines that a lot of the nobility have no clue about at first because they genuinely don’t focus on the smaller picture rather than more major places of interest. Meanwhile, all of Lonnie’s small wins for the Horde keep building up until somebody notices that the Horde has more territory and access to resources than they ought to. And I think the first person to really understand and notice all of this would be Bow. So he heads missions that place him in opposition of Lonnie, and they both grow a healthy respect of each other over time.
I think they could actually agree on several things, disagree on others, and respect each other’s intelligence and tactics. Bow could help Lonnie start to question the Horde over time, which results in Lonnie switching sides. I think these two could become great friends!
Piggy-backing off of that, Lonnie would definitely hate Glimmer at first, and of course Glimmer has no love lost on Lonnie either. Because, you know, she thinks everyone in the Horde is evil. When Glimmer finds out via Bow about all the territory lost under Lonnie’s command, she definitely pushes for missions to get it back. And when the BFS get to those locations… she doesn’t see villages razed to the ground and people struggling to survive. Sure, there’s obvious Horde occupation, these places are crawling with them, but some of the cities and villages seem totally cool with it. And Glimmer is… confused. The Horde is obviously awful, how could anyone be cool with occupation? And then she finds out that for the people of those locations, the Horde was somehow the lesser evil for them.
Lonnie’s flavor of occupation is slightly different than what Glimmer’s seen before, take that alongside what things were like before, and the loss of faith in the nobility, Glimmer… She still wants to liberate these places, she’s not letting the Horde hold onto this territory. But it has caused Glimmer to start thinking, mostly about the failings of the nobility to help the common people. And how she wants to rectify all of this, and starts to have more of an interest in government. This is helping her develop as a leader for when she later becomes queen. And because of Bow’s reports on Lonnie, she maybe even starts to believe that everybody in the Horde isn’t evil. It’s a step in the right direction, at least.
I think with Adora, she’s getting another person from her past as an enemy, but I don’t think Lonnie will operate the way Catra does. She feels betrayed and angry, but she’s not getting personal on the field like Catra. Adora is reminded through Lonnie about the family she left behind and this results in Adora really pushing to get people out of the Horde, starting with Lonnie. I think over time talking with Lonnie yields good results, and alongside Bow influences Lonnie’s decision to defect. And maybe Lonnie gets a closer friendship with Adora as they get to know each other again (better this time) due to there being no Catra trying to monopolize Adora.
Speaking of Catra, this part gets me GIDDY. I want Lonnie to serve as Catra’s political rival in the Horde. It would be amazing if Lonnie was promoted in S2 and ended up contributing to the fear Catra had of losing favor with Hordak, and therefore her place in the hierarchy. The best bit about it would be that it’s specifically LONNIE doing it. The one who in their earlier days growing up in the Horde “threatened” Catra by trying to be Adora’s friend, who prevented her from winning that training exercise, who prior to Catra becoming Force Captain, warned Catra to watch her step because Adora wasn’t around to protect her anymore. That Lonnie is now possibly threatening her place as second-in-command because Hordak is slowly having a growing positive of her because of the territory and resources Lonnie is securing for the Horde. Meanwhile, his opinion of Catra is suffering in the face of both Lonnie and Entrapta.
I could see Catra trying to sabotage Lonnie by tipping off the Rebellion, undermining her, and maybe even trying to orchestrate an “accident” if she’s desperate enough. And Catra knows that Lonnie has more support in the Horde compared to her. She’s more popular with the other Force Captains, soldiers, and amongst the cadets. Because of Catra delegating the paperwork (in my version she also delegates to Lonnie, purely to annoy her) she’s gotten better with it and knowing the inner workings of how the Horde runs. Both Kyle and Rogelio are assets to her, and while Catra outranks Lonnie and her assets are technically Catra’s, they’re more loyal and willing to do more for Lonnie.
As for Lonnie, she’s never really liked Catra (understandably). Of course at the end of the day she’d still hold loyalty and concern, but she does not like that girl. Catra has prevented a closer relationship with Adora that Lonnie had wanted growing up, she employs tactics Lonnie doesn’t approve of, and Catra has little regard for others in the Horde besides her personal circle. And now Catra is bearing down more heavily over time on Lonnie because of her desperation and paranoia. She’s heavily critical of Catra behind closed doors and pushes back in what ways she can.
I just want to see political drama between these two, it’d be awesome.
Scorpia! Does anybody else ship Lonnie and Scorpia? I think it has potential to actually go somewhere, definitely a slow-burn though. In this version of events I definitely think these two would spend more time together. Maybe after the war ends they’re able to explore something outside of a friendship. If you really wanted to you could include Perfuma in there (I never shipped the poly of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, just couldn’t see it). Anyway, I think Scorpia would inspire Lonnie to step up and exhibit behavior that leads to her promotion to begin with, all because she supports her and recognizes her talents. Lonnie could try to get Scorpia to have more self respect for herself because Scorpia is great and deserves to not put up with so much of Catra’s bs.
That’s about all the ideas I have towards Lonnie at this time, I’ll probably make at least a second part to this.
