Fractures - Tumblr Posts

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Breaking Down Catra’s Breakdown in Fractures

I really love Catra’s breakdown scene. Every shot has a purpose and meaning behind it and so does the music. I don’t think there was a wasted moment.

 It starts on a closeup shot of her face making sure we can’t really see her surroundings and it’s clear from the get go that her smile and words don’t completely match up with how she feels by the obvious bags under her eyes. There’s more going on here. 

Then it cuts to a shot of the screen with Hordak on it. There is a small screen in the lower left corner that is cracked once again hinting at everything not being “under control”. The cracks in Catra’s facade are becoming harder to hide from the people around her and the full extent of her deteriorating mental state is hidden from the audience.

The transmission ends and immediately the camera zooms out to reveal all of the destruction around Catra. The music swells to what is a sinister note then fades to a quieter decidedly more tragic tune. The full extent of Catra’s emotional decline isn’t shown until Catra is completely alone. Catra is framed rather small in comparison to the large, destroyed room. Her pain is bigger than she can handle and everything is starting to become collateral. 

The shot changes to a closeup view once again but this time it’s of Catra’s profile from the middle of her chest to the bridge of her nose, her eyes are out of frame. Catra removes her mask right now both literally and metaphorically, but we still can’t see her eyes. Her full emotions aren’t completely clear yet. We’ve only seen the destruction and anger.

 The mask falls to the ground and Catra quickly follows. She falls to her knees with her head bowed to the ground and starts crying. 

It cuts to her face and we finally get to see her eyes again and all we can see is her emotional anguish. The sad/tragic music swells as Catra’s breakdown continues mirroring the outpouring of emotion. It went from soft when Catra initially removed her mask and the more Catra’s facade slips the louder the music gets until the facade is completely gone and the music crescendos. The shot is a close up, nothing else is in frame. Catra is so alone and in denial that her real feelings, the sadness and pain, can’t be seen by anyone else. She makes sure that it can’t be seen by anyone else. All anyone else will see once this is done is the outward destruction.

This whole scene is so powerful from the framing, to the music, to the dialogue, to the animation. Everything about this scene is amazing. It’s framed so tragic. This is Catra’s low point. She is hitting her rock bottom.

She-ra Season 4 Re-watch Thoughts

This season has a massive jump in animation quality. The backgrounds are stunning. I think the best example to watch and see the progression is the fight in episode 4 between Glimmer and Catra. The movements are incredibly fluid, the animation for glimmer’s powers is amazing, and the animation of the flames and embers around them is what made me want to mention the animation for this episode specifically.

This season is probably the most consistently strong of the first four with the string of episodes from Hero to Destiny part 2 being the strongest stretch of the series so far. The only reason it’s not longer is because of the episode Boys’ night out which breaks up what would otherwise be a consistently fantastic season. I understood where they were going with the episode but I wasn’t a fan of the execution. There were moments that were great within but they emerged all on Catra’s end. Her opening up to the already gone Scorpia and the moment when she discovers Scorpia are gone are some of the best character moments this season.

Actually almost all my favorite moments this season belong to Catra. I really liked the way they showed her downward spiral and the devastation at realizing that everything she thought she wanted is empty and hasn’t filled the void she has in her heart. I’ve said it many times before: I think Catra is the best written character on the show and I feel like every season just manages to prove this point. “[she] tries so hard to play the big bad villain, but [her] heart’s never been in it… This was never what [she] really wanted”.

This season is also what I believe to be the darkest of them all. This is the “the empire strikes back” or the “Avatar book 2”, if you will, of the series. While the 5th season is comparably dark this is the one where everything ends on a pretty hopeless note for the heroes. The whole season the heroes are losing ground in the war while the horde topples territory after territory. And in the end both the horde and the rebellion are in shambles, she-ra has been destroyed, Glimmer, Catra, and Hordak are aboard horde prime’s ship, and the true force of the horde is now on etheria’s doorstep and knows about the heart. This is incredibly bleak. The odds are stacked so much against our heroes that there seems to be no way they can pull out the win. I think ending each season prior to this on a hopeful note was a good decision on the writer’s part because it really hammered home how this moment is truly our heroes’ darkest hour.

I believe this is my favorite season thematically. This is where all of our characters are pushed to the edge and the characters are all forced to come to terms with the darkest parts of themselves and each other. In this season Glimmer becomes increasingly ruthless and her “crippling doubt paired with overwhelming hubris” becomes her fatal flaw. Glimmer, while also fueled by desperation, made the decision to use the heart in part due to her anger at her friends and belief that she can control it which was fueled by her ego. Glimmer’s decision was not selfless. It was understandable, but it was not selfless. It directly mirrored Catra’s decision to open the portal in season 3.  

Glimmer sees the world in a black and white binary where she is firmly in the moral “white” and the ends justify the means to her. Her worldview she leaned so hard into for the first 3 seasons has been shattered and her view of herself within her binary of good and evil has been shattered as well.

This season really dove deep into how destiny doesn’t just effect the chosen one but people from all over. From Glimmer to Catra to Adora to Hordak to Entrapta to Mara. They all struggle with this concept of destiny and some things just being inevitable. Catra and being defined by her past, hordak and being defined by his place in horde prime’s empire, Adora and her power and the manipulations of others, Entrapta and her struggles to connect, Glimmer and her desire for greatness. (I think in a way Glimmer believed she was destined to succeed where Adora had “failed” and defeat the horde through her ends justify the means mentality. Adora wasn’t willing to do what it takes, but she is) [I did a whole meta on all their relationships to destiny here]

Mara is perhaps the most tragic of all because her final moments were spent trying to make sure that Adora didn't fail and fall prey to the destiny forced upon her like she did. That final scene in Hero where Razz places the pie on Mara's seat will never not make me emotional. Mara didn't get to live to see the her life beyond her destiny because she died breaking it.

I connected a lot more with Adora’s arc this season than I did the first time I watched it. I think going into it knowing where her arc is going and coming in straight after season 3 changes my perspective on it quite a bit. It’s a lot more profound of a milestone now. Learning how much she’s struggled with destiny and purpose in the 5th season makes it a lot more touching. “You are more than what you can do for others.” Adora makes the decision to get rid of she-ra, as far as she knows, by breaking the sword which is, per her “destiny”, the only reason she exists in this place, at this time. She was destined to be a deathbringer, a key to a super weapon and yet she decides against it by effectively destroying the very thing that she believes makes her valuable to the people around her.

Adora’s struggled with the idea that everything she’s ever done has been forced upon her by the horde, shadow weaver, light hope, the first ones, etc. and the first decision that she’s made that has in her view been truly her own is this climactic moment that comes at the worst time. Horde prime is at their doorstep, he knows about the weapon, and he has Catra and Glimmer who both know how the super weapon works. Adora, who has been told her whole life her worth comes from what she can do rather than who she is, has just lost her biggest tool/asset for helping others. She gains something with finally making a decision that is truly her own but loses something in she-ra which like Adora says in the season 1 finale if she-ra can’t save everyone “then what good is she (Adora)”. I really liked this because it forces Adora to realize what she’s worth outside of she-ra in the following season and it works perfectly into her arc.

Legally must reblog because I literally designed Nostra myself (the proof is on their wiki page lolol).

Just some doodles I made like months ago lmao

Its them omg 🥺 Low-key miss their og looks but alas, war drip is war drip

Random drawing from class that i actually finished

Stella is just perfect lmfao

You tell me this isn’t them-