was watching s1 of spop with a friend the other day, and she went 'but adora asked catra to come with her! catra's being a dumbass!' and it made me wonder if, like, people who didn't grow up in abusive households just can't entirely get it.
i mean, it makes so much sense to me? when i was a teenager, all i would do every day was dream of the day i'd finally leave home. i had a whole plan, of how i'd get into college in a different city and move there on my own, or maybe even get a girlfriend and move in together... and even though that was years and years away, so far off that it often felt like a pipe dream, it was the only solution i could imagine. had one of my friends abruptly showed up on my doorstep and told me 'hey pack your things we're relocating to the other side of the country with some people i met a day and a half ago, it's gonna be GREAT', i would think they've gone nuts. i wouldn't consider it for a second. i mean, yes, i'd be out of my abusive home, but what would i have to rely on?
even abusive families hold a sense of safety. you know you always have a place to come back to. a roof over your head, a bed, a meal. and after years and years of it, you've found ways to deal with the abuse -- you know how to navigate it. a familiar evil is far less terrifying than some vague promise of happiness in the great unknown. while adora (and the viewer) knows that bright moon is the objective good in this scenario, and thus can rest assured that she'll be supported and looked after, catra has no reason to trust in a bunch of random strangers that are all categorically her enemies.
add to that the moral aspect that adora wraps it up in ('i know you're not a bad person, you don't belong with the horde' = staying in your abusive home because it's your home and it's all you know is actually a moral failing), and i mean... geez. i can't remotely blame catra for not coming with her. from her point of view, adora's actions are reckless to the point of nonsensical -- they've endangered adora (because what safety net does she have outside the horde?) and they've endangered catra, who's left with no one to protect her, over some sudden overnight epiphany that completely flipped her lifelong morals and worldview. and now catra is the one who has to feel bad, for being an abused teenager who can't help but depend on the toxic environment that raised her from infancy.
so, yeah. catra is just painfully relatable to me. she makes so much sense, and is such a realistically written victim of abuse, bless this show.
titsay
tangentwithtanner
2087
kianamaiart
prguitarman
