Glimmer - Tumblr Posts

She-ra Season 1 Review

I just watched the netflix She-ra reboot and have to say I really enjoyed it. The characters are all enjoyable, the story is fun and engaging, and it produced one of my favorite animated episodes of the year. I came into this series knowing very little about She-ra and now want to go check out the original series to see the inspiration behind the show.

I really enjoyed the characters in She-ra and thought all their distinct personalities played off each other really well and thought the friendships and dynamics between the main characters were some of the strongest parts of the show. Bow and Glimmer’s friendship is really fun and it’s refreshing to see no romance within the main trio. Dreamworks managed to yet again create a protagonist and antagonist that I love with a complex dynamic that embodies the saying “there’s a thin line between love and hate.” It left me wanting to see more of these characters and excited to see where their arcs will take them.

The pilot of She-ra introduced the characters, world, and central conflict in a way that excited me to watch and learn more about them all. The next couple episodes were entertaining and fun, but followed a pattern that made them predictable. The repetition of episodes 4-6 were my only real complaint because I still enjoyed the character interactions present. Once it hit episode 7 the show hit the ground running and produced my aforementioned favorite episode with episode 11 entitled “Promise”. Promise was a half hour character and relationship study of Catra and Adora that was jaw-droppingly directed. It came to an emotional conclusion that left me immediately clicking the next episode button. I cannot say enough good things about this episode. I highly recommend watching it for yourself.

All in all this season had a strong start and has a lot of potential to grow. The ending set up a conflict that I hope to see come to fruition in later seasons. I recommend you watch this show and form an opinion for yourself.

She-ra Season 5 Thoughts and Review

I believe that she-ra stuck the landing with its final season. I did have a few issues, but overall I really loved it. I remember when the first season initially released I watched it because I had just finished watching trollhunters and had just started voltron and was excited to see what dreamworks had in store next. The first season contained one of my favorite animated episodes of that year with “Promise”. I was struck by how good the character writing was for Catra, Adora, and their dynamic. That wasn’t the only surprise I experienced when it came to the character writing, Angella and Glimmer’s relationship also had more depth than I was expecting. It became one of my most anticipated animated shows right after that season and I’ve been on board ever since and I don’t regret the ride one bit. So of course I woke up at 2 am my time despite having to work in the morning to watch the entire 5th season of she-ra. Here are my thoughts and there are a lot.

I know the season is new so I’m putting my thoughts below the cut because there are spoilers. 

I want to start with what I loved most about the season. Catra’s redemption. This arc was easily my favorite part of the season, maybe even the whole series. This is what I’ve been waiting for since the series started and I wasn’t disappointed. Catra has been, in my opinion, the show's best and most consistently great character. She’s incredibly complex and trying to write about everything that makes her well written in a single paragraph would not do it justice. (That’s the subject of a meta that would need to split up season by season) I liked that we finally got to see Catra admit out loud what she must have been thinking for awhile. That she’s sorry and that she doesn’t want to be evil and have the bad actions define the rest of her life. This has felt like a long time coming. There have been multiple episodes dedicated to making it clear that her goal to conquer Etheria is superficial and not what she truly wants or needs. Catra has tried to gain power so that she can’t be hurt by people again. Physically by people like shadow weaver and emotionally, however unintentionally, by people like Adora. So when she finally acknowledged that she has been lying to herself the whole time and that she really does care about Adora I was relieved. She could finally start taking the steps to get the love and happiness that she has so desperately wanted this entire time and she does get it through Adora, Glimmer, and Bow. She finally starts expressing her emotions in a healthy manner. Through her arc we see that redemption isn’t just one big decision, but many decisions that have to be made every day. It is made clear that bettering herself is hard, that she has to work on it and she has the resolve to do just that. I really liked that they had her struggle to continuously work towards self betterment like when she initially pushes Adora away after “Save the Cat” and her attempt to leave after Adora accepts the failsafe, but in the end she does make the hard choice to own up to her shortcomings and face the things she fears. If she hadn’t had any obstacles after doing “that one good thing with [her] life” I would have had problems with her arc, but it was handled very well and realistically. I really liked Catra’s redemption arc and thought that it all came full circle in the end.

I really like the interactions between Glimmer and Catra early in the season. Their bonding over their shared connection to Adora was sweet. I liked how they integrated Glimmer as the good influence in Catra’s redemption arc. The good influence is a staple of the villain to hero arc typically. This one was interesting because this was after Catra’s wake up call from double trouble and because Glimmer herself is in need of a redemption of sorts after last season. They both are a “good” influence on each other. Catra has deep seeded doubts about her path in life, but she’s also scared to leave her path. It’s because she saw herself in glimmer last season that she starts to let Glimmer influence her. Glimmer made a huge mistake and pushed her friends away for the same/similar reasons as to why Catra does and it led to her making a rash decision that almost destroyed Etheria. Catra’s decision to open the portal and Glimmer’s decision to activate the heart of Etheria are directly paralleled with the key difference being how they dealt with realizing they made a terrible mistake. Glimmer acknowledged she made a mistake and struggled, despite the futility, to fix it whereas Catra drove herself deeper into denial. Catra got to see Glimmer strive to fix her mistake and regret over how she treated Adora and Bow and can no longer deny her own faults and care for Adora. Glimmer, through Catra’s sacrifice, realizes that she was wrong about pure goods and pure evils. That there is a shot at redemption even for people like Catra. That doesn’t necessarily mean forgiveness but working/trying to be a better person or doing the “one good thing in [their] life”. Both changed the other and I loved the new dynamic.

(On a semi side note I loved the interactions of the new best friends squad)

Catra and Adora’s relationship has been the heart of the show since season 1. Be it romantic or platonic or enemies they have always been driving each other’s character arcs. I don’t really ship but I am a fan of how their relationship intertwined with their character arcs. The way it played into Catra’s descent and redemption as well as Adora’s struggles was fantastic. Catra realizing that she really does care about Adora and regrets her actions played perfectly into how she was able to bring Adora’s arc to completion and get Adora to think of a future and what she wants instead of resigning herself to dying for others. And it was Adora never giving up on Catra that made it so that Catra can start moving forward from her abuse and fear of abandonment. The final decision where Catra tells Adora she won’t leave no matter what happens and Adora accepts her decision is what completed both characters' arcs.

The perfect summation of their relationship is their arc words and how they evolve. Their main arc word is “promise”. This has been echoed season after season with none of the previous ones being entirely kept. This season is different. The promises that Adora and Catra make are kept until the end. Their other arc words evolve from “come with me” to “stay with me” in this season. On the surface level they seem to have similar meanings but in the context of Adora and Catra’s relationship they have completely different meanings. “Come with me” is reminiscent of someone leaving, like Adora does in the beginning, because they aren’t happy with where they are and they have to move forward and they want someone to follow. This is what triggers the fractures in their relationship. Adora leaves and chooses something else over staying with Catra which is Catra’s biggest fear and causes her resentment towards Adora for breaking the promise to always be together. Catra isn’t at the point where she can follow Adora. She is too hurt emotionally and right then unable to move past her abuse. With the words changing to “stay with me” this season it’s about keeping someone from leaving rather than having someone leave with you. Catra has finally gotten to a point where she has finally come with Adora. She has opened up to others and started to move forward in spite of the abuse inflicted on her. She is “with” Adora. They are in the same place and Adora wants to sacrifice it and leave because she feels she has to, not because she wants to. So when Catra says “stay with me” she means don’t give up, don’t give in to the destiny thrown at you, keep fighting to the end with me. So the arc words come full circle as well. Catra’s greatest fear is being left so until that point she left people first and now she is holding on and fighting for the connections. It’s a great bookend to her arc. And Adora accepting Catra’s decision to stay marks the completion of her arc as well. Adora finally lets someone help her through to the end. Both these characters have come so far and I’m just happy that they got happy endings.

I really liked how they sort of inverted the typical heroic character arc with Adora this season. In a traditional hero arc the hero starts out selfish and then becomes selfless. Adora however has been selfless since the beginning. To the point of it being her fatal flaw. Adora has always sacrificed her happiness and well being for others and in this season she learns the limits to this self harming sort of selflessness. She’s always believed that to have worth she had to help others and solve all their problems even at cost to herself. This season she learns that it isn’t selfish to want a future, to not want to die saving everyone and how that can be a strength. That if you have something you want to live for it will help you power through in times where Hope seems lost.  “You’re worth more than what you can give to other people” It was a touching message that I was happy was given so much emphasis.

Adora’s arc is so well done. I really love how deep of a dive they decided to take into her character and trauma. Up until this season everyone seemed able to brush aside how deeply Adora’s abuse effected her and how her experiences in the show have just reinforced the toxic thought process that she is the most disposable person in every room and that she needs to be needed or no one will want her around. And how easily these traits can be misconstrued as heroic or overbearing by those around her rather than the mental scars that they are. I loved how it was all displayed and confronted. It was a very emotional journey and I wasn’t really expecting it when I went into the season, but I was really happy to be surprised by it. Mental abuse is frequently thought of as lesser and not as damaging, but this show took the time to show how horrible and pervasive the effects of mental abuse can be. Adora is a good person that has been hurt and screwed over by shadow weaver and led to believe that her life is meaningless unless given in service to a greater cause. This is a damaging mindset and one that is romanticized frequently in media, so I was really glad that it got addressed this season and that they came to such a satisfying conclusion. It’s okay to want to live, it’s okay to want a future, it’s okay to want to be happy, and that it’s these desires that give Adora the strength to power through and save everyone in the end.

Now onto the things I didn’t really like. There aren’t many. For one I felt like there was a bit more mood whiplash in this season than the last two. It didn’t bother me that often, but I thought it was strange how soon after the emotionally charged episodes of “save the cat” and “taking control” there was a mostly comedic one with “perils or peekablue” which pulled me out of the events of that episode until the end where Scorpio sacrificed herself. And how right after “Corridors”, another highly emotional episode, there was “stranded” which while not at all a bad episode didn’t have even close to the emotional weight of the previous one and was significantly more lighthearted. I just wish the tone was balanced a bit better in the comedic episodes.

Horde prime, while intimidating, wasn’t as compelling a villain to me as Catra, Shadow weaver, or Hordak. I will be rewatching the season so my opinion may change. During my first watch through I was mainly focusing on Adora, Catra, and Glimmer, so this time I’ll try and take in everything else.

 I want to make it clear that I don’t think shadow weaver was redeemed in her final act. Even then she put emphasis on the importance of destroying the heart to free the magic rather than on Catra and Adora’s survival. I’m not entirely sure what they were going for with her sacrifice, but I was at the very least glad that both Catra and Adora stood up to shadow weaver in this season in ways they had failed to do previously. Catra made it clear that she didn’t care about shadow weaver and her opinion and that it was Adora she cared about and Adora made it clear that Catra wasn’t a distraction or any of the things shadow weaver says about her. I’m not really a fan of her saying she was proud of Catra in the end because it felt really hollow. Shadow weaver wasn’t a good person at all and both Catra and Adora deserved much better than her.

I was overall a big fan of this season. I found it to be a much better ending than many of the cartoons I’ve seen recently and I will definitely rewatch it in the future. I really like the character writing present in she-ra. Catra, Adora, and Glimmer are some of the best written characters in recent memory. 

Addendum: I loved She-ra’s redesign! The animation and music in this season were superb. I just want to thank Noelle and everyone who worked on this show for all the hard work and love they put into this work.

Catra and Glimmer - Moments of Truth

The episode “moment of truth” is a major turning point in both Glimmer and Catra’s arcs. They both get their own moments of truth in the episode, but both are framed very differently despite the episode making it clear they both made the wrong choice.

First up is Glimmer. There are two scenes in this episode that can be viewed as her moment of truth. The first is when she initially goes to shadow weaver who persuades Glimmer to free her through the promise of power and the second is when Glimmer actually takes Shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone to the fright zone.

For the first one shading is the biggest motif used. The more glimmer considers shadow weaver’s offer the more bathed in shadow she becomes. Glimmer is partially covered in darkness and partially covered in light. Bow is shown on her left completely covered in light while shadow weaver is in the shadows on her right. This is reminiscent of the angel and devil on someone’s shoulders.

 And in this case the devil on her shoulder wins. Shadow weaver tells Glimmer that she has near limitless potential and guarantees she can help Glimmer obtain power. This is ultimately what gets Glimmer to free shadow weaver, step into the shadows, and take her hand.

The second instance and the one that is framed the most as Glimmer’s moment of truth comes when she is on the rooftop and makes the final decision to take shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone into the fright zone. The entire scene is framed very sinister using dark colors to emphasize this point. The music called “moment of truth” swells as shadow weaver holds out her hand and Glimmer takes it. Glimmer doesn’t know this is her moment of truth. She doesn’t know that she is making the wrong decision, but the audience does.

Catra’s is framed as the exact opposite.The lighting is much brighter and the music quiets when she pulls the lever. 

The same music that played during Glimmer’s moment of truth plays during the buildup to this moment not for the actual moment. Catra knows her decision is wrong and I believe this was framed from Adora’s perspective. This was a chilling moment of realization for Adora. This is shown through the quiet music. Adora is shocked, everything outside of this moment is being blocked out and the brighter lighting is used to similar effect and emphasize her realization. In this moment any hope that she had of being able to personally get through to Catra was squashed. Catra made the decision to pull the lever in spite of Adora’s warnings. The look of horror on Adora’s face tells the audience all they need to know about how this moment effected her.

Adora, Catra, and Glimmer and their Relationships to Destiny

She-ra covers a lot of topics in surprising depth, but the one I want to talk about right now is it’s dissection on destiny. It takes a long hard look at the topic through it’s three female leads Catra, Adora, and Glimmer. It’s surprising how much overlap there is and how each character is used as a direct foil to the others in regards to the show’s exploration of destiny.

Adora

Adora has a complicated relationship with destiny. Throughout the series until the series finale she has continually followed false destinies first with shadow weaver and the horde then with she-ra and light hope then finally with the failsafe. Adora has had false destinies forced upon her and she feels she has no way out, that she can’t refuse the call. She actually feels secure in knowing she has a destiny. It’s a path to follow, a purpose, and without a purpose what’s the point of her? At least that’s what she believes. She places her entire self worth on what she can do for other people to the point of self destruction. She is willing to answer the call no matter the cost even if it’s not what she wants. But Adora was never meant to succeed in any of her false destinies. It was always someone else using her for their own gain. All of her sacrifice would be for nothing.

Her breaking the sword in destiny isn’t her refusing the call. She believes her purpose is to protect etheria and those she cares about and by breaking the sword she is “killing” a part of herself to answer that call. Just like how she left the one person she cared most about and her entire life behind to answer that same call in the pilot. Just like her taking on the failsafe and accepting her, what she believes to be, inevitable death. In a weird way every time she rejects the call from someone else (shadow weaver, light hope, the first ones, etc) she is leaning harder into the idea of her purpose and sacrifice defining who she is, which is in and of itself a false destiny and self fulfilling prophecy that almost gets Adora killed time and time again.

Adora is never given a choice in any of her other false destinies (in fact she was actively conditioned to believe that she had no choice by shadow weaver and light hope. Adora was made to believe that she was meant to answer a higher call and neglect her own needs and wants) so she feels that the call to protect etheria and her friends isn’t a choice either. To Adora it’s the reason she exists. She is what she can do for other people. She is stuck in her own cycle of service and sacrifice that was forced upon her by shadow weaver and others.

Catra

Catra, like Adora, follows a destiny she thinks has been forced upon her. She feels the role of the villain is her only choice. At first it was a role forced onto her by shadow weaver then it became a way to prove to everyone she felt hurt her and didn’t believe in her that she was capable, that she was strong, but then the farther she went the more she believed that there was no other path for her. She felt she had to continue because she had gone too far to turn back and so she had to make something of it all. She felt she was proving shadow weaver, the source of her trauma, wrong by gaining power and relevance within the horde and etheria, but also that she was proving shadow weaver right, that she was a horrible, good for nothing person that only hurts those around her. She felt trapped within this destiny (the cycle of abuse and violence).

She continues to double down and claw her way up to the top which culminates in her defeat of Hordak. She is the sole leader of the horde, she has clawed her way up and defeated all of those that were above her, and yet she has lost everything. She has lost everyone who ever actually cared about her and to make matters worse the power she strove after all these seasons was decimated in one fell swoop by Glimmer mainly because of her own actions (though Glimmer’s plan was smart). Glimmer would not have been successful if Catra hadn’t overworked the troops, been lying to Hordak, sent Entrapta to beast island, pushed Scorpia away, put faith in double trouble who she knows is hired help who knows no loyalties, and taken even a little bit of care of herself. It’s in this moment where she’s at her lowest that she is given the brutal and (only partially true because shadow weaver was definitely not pushed away by her. Shadow weaver just sucks.) eye opening speech by double trouble.

Catra has fallen victim to her own self-fulfilling prophecy just like Adora does during the series. Both had these cycles/destinies forced upon them by shadow weaver and her abuse and can’t see a way out. They feel they have to continue down their respective paths of self destruction because it’s their only choice

Glimmer

Glimmer isn’t like Catra or Adora. She never had a destiny forced upon her, but she wanted one. She wanted to be the hero, to save all of etheria. Glimmer wants glory and power. This isn’t to say that Glimmer is a bad person, far from it in fact, just that she has shortcomings that blinded her to the truth: that she didn’t have a destiny, but that doesn’t make anything she does less meaningful than what Adora does.

A large part of her season 4 arc is about her clashing with Adora over her feeling as though Adora is failing in her destiny and won’t take the necessary steps to win, but that she can. Adora isn’t willing to use the dirty tactics to beat the horde, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to use all of her resources like shadow weaver, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to fire off the heart of etheria, but she is. Because of all of this Glimmer starts to believe in her own way that Adora is failing as the hero and in her destiny and if that’s the case Glimmer will take that destiny. Adora is meant to finish off the horde by activating the heart of Etheria and since she won’t Glimmer takes that destiny from her. There is a conflicting mix of anger, desperation, pain, and pride that push her to do this, but it still all ends with her going to light hope to take Adora’s destiny for herself and her using Catra’s tactics to take the horde down from the inside.

She in a way takes the forced destinies of Catra and Adora on for herself. She believes, like Catra, that she has to make it all worth it, all the loss her and her people have gone through, which is what leads her down her spiral like how it led Catra down her spiral this same season.

How it all concludes in the 5th season

As I’ve said above all of their struggles with destiny come to a head in season 4’s finale. Glimmer in taking on the destinies of others ends up making a grave mistake that almost ends the world and universe. Adora effectively “kills” she-ra to answer her calling to protect etheria. Catra has climbed her way to the top of the horde, but has lost all the power she thought she wanted and had to strive for at the same time. All of these in their own way subvert the expectations of each character and force them to take a hard look in season 5 at themselves and their destiny.

Catra is forced into a situation where she is effectively powerless and is faced with the same decision she had at the end of season 3. This time she decides to take action against destroying the universe. She hasn’t erased her mistakes, but has shown that she has grown from them. In this decision she has started to break free from the cycle she was stuck in. It isn’t until the episode “Taking Control” that she fully starts to break the cycle. She makes the decision to live and face her mistakes instead of die or run from them. This is Catra breaking free from her destiny. It’s through facing her mistakes that Catra is able to grow and become the person she always was instead of the person she felt she had to be. Catra’s struggle with destiny was always that she felt she had to be someone else, that it was the only way to protect herself and prove others wrong. It’s through actual acceptance, care, and compassion shown to her that she is able to break free from this mindset. Obviously the journey isn’t over, it’s something she will always have to work on, but she has made significant strides and wants to continue making them. Her destiny is her own choosing.

Adora is a bit more difficult because she backslides in a big way in the fifth season. She starts out the season having difficulty adjusting to no longer having her destiny as she-ra and she seems to come to terms with the absence of this destiny by the time she leaves earth. And in “Save the Cat’’ she actively goes against her calling and destiny she believes she has to follow. She puts saving Catra above the universe. She won’t leave the ship without Catra and the odds of her getting out, especially without she-ra, were practically non-existent and she knew this going in. This is the first time in the series that Adora really makes a choice that is for herself not her calling. This ironically is what brings back she-ra, one of her false destinies, but this time she-ra is a manifestation of Adora and her will, not that false destiny. Once Adora returns to Etheria and is faced with the failsafe and shadow weaver she backslides back into a false destiny pushed onto her by shadow weaver. She takes on the failsafe and decides that being sacrificed is a better outcome than letting horde prime get the heart. She is fully prepared to die and Catra sees this. Catra becomes the first person to ask Adora what it is that she wants. Adora can’t answer. Her needs and wants are unimportant next to her destiny. “It was always going to end like this.” To Adora this end was inevitable. But then Catra comes back and decides to stay with her when she activates the failsafe. It’s in this moment of selfless love from Catra that Adora is able to break free from the coffin of her abuse and reach for what she wants. In doing so she is able to break the cycle of service and sacrifice. She has let herself want to live and have a future which is what saves her. It’s what lets her break free from her destiny.

Glimmer is once again different. She doesn’t have a destiny to break free from. But from taking on the false destinies of Catra and Adora Glimmer is able to gain perspective that she didn’t before. She understands to a much greater degree what drove Catra to where she is now. Their similarities are no longer a point of contention but rather a point of connection. The new perspective Glimmer has allows her to reach out to Catra and see the potential for good that she was so adamant didn’t exist in earlier seasons. She’s able to see the shades of grey within people unlike before (ex. “Bad people don’t change” in the price of power). It allows herself to see her own flaws with much more clarity such as her desire for power and glory, jealousy, quick temper, etc and grow. She’s able to see the shades of grey within herself. This also allows her to accept that she doesn’t have a destiny, but her actions are just as important as anyone else’s. It doesn’t negate all the good she’s done or will do. This allows her to find the power within herself to defeat her father and protect all the princesses in the final battle with horde prime. Glimmer isn’t defined by this lack of destiny. It’s an interesting foil to Catra and Adora who always felt trapped within destinies. Glimmer felt trapped because of her lack of one like she was limited because of it, but it’s once she discovers that she isn’t, that she can create her own path, that she’s able to create her biggest positive impacts which is rather fitting.

She-ra Season 1 Re-watch Thoughts

Going back and watching season 1 after watching season 5 is actually really strange. The show has changed so much. Not just the themes and the stakes, but even the animation. Watching it all at once makes it very clear the jump in animation quality season to season. That’s not to say season 1 had bad animation, far from it, but the use of color, lighting, and framing is much better utilized in later seasons and the action scenes get better as time moves forward. I will say I was always a fan of the art style. I never really understood why shows get attacked for their art style before the show even airs. I think every art style can bring something new to the table and how they use that art style to their advantage is what matters and I think she-ra capitalizes on it.

The character designs are my favorite. You can tell a lot about each character by their design alone which is an impressive feat to pull off. Like for Catra she has heterochromia which is used to outwardly display her dual nature and warring inner conflict between her love and hatred of Adora and in the 5th season it’s used to portray her struggle between self betterment and sliding into old habits and self destruction. The blue eye is the one covered by the corruption in season 3 symbolizing Catra’s decision to open the portal making Adora realize that she can’t save her anymore and so on.

The use of music gets much better within the season around episode 11. This is where the most emotional scores come into play that become recurring leitmotifs for the characters and relationships. The most notable being the one that plays in “Promise” when Catra is cutting the webbing and leaves Adora to fall. This score becomes the leitmotif for their relationship and continuously pops up when they are having a breakthrough or major shift in their relationship like in the aforementioned scene, when Catra tells Adora she would rather see the whole world destroyed than let Adora win, during Catra’s apology in Corridors, during the confession in the finale, and many more. The music is breathtaking. I really hope they release the full score at some point.

I also just realized that, other than the 5th season finale, this season has easily the happiest finale. All the other ones get increasingly dark. The second season ends with Shadow weaver standing over Adora’s bed and Catra getting caught in a lie and choked by hordak, the third ends with the portal being closed but Angella sacrificing herself and Adora having given up trying to save Catra, and the fourth season ends with Glimmer and Catra captured, She-ra seemingly destroyed, and imminent invasion by Horde Prime’s overwhelming forces. While I enjoy the finale of this season I think it’s weaker than the episodes leading up to it. Princess Prom, Promise, No Princess Left Behind, and In the shadows of mystacor are stronger episodes as a whole in my opinion.  

I'm split on the finale of this season on the one hand I did really like the whole “the night is darkest just before the dawn '' feel the finale had to it but on the other I think it was wrapped up a bit quickly. To go off the first point the reason I liked it has more to do with how it works within the context of the whole story. The rebellion has lost almost all of its members, the world is a mess, and the horde is marching on a mostly defenseless Brightmoon. Catra has clawed her way to the top, torn down shadow weaver, and managed to be a driving force in the princess alliance falling apart. The villains are for the first time a very believable threat to the rebellion. The battle seemed hopeless and the fight between Catra and Adora that brought them face to face for the first time since promise was everything I could have asked for. So I was a little put off by the sudden reversal of situations. I still find it to be jarring but I also like how the reversal makes it so that when seasons 3, 4, and 5 come around and we see the actual lowest points of these characters and their situations it feels like a natural progression, that the characters were lucky this time.

The finale also emphasizes the idea that there is strength in bonds which I think is a big part of the end message of the show. The series finale isn’t a big battle, at least not on Adora’s front, but Catra cradling Adora in her arms asking her to stay which gives Adora the strength to pull through. If the rebellion hadn’t won this battle I don’t think the coming struggles and hardships would have hit as hard as they did. I actually think the finale did a good job with what it was trying to do and set up. It gives off the “A New Hope” vibe so that when season 4 rolls around and hits us with a “The Empire Strikes Back” it hits really hard. (I still think the tonal shift is jarring and the themes explored in this episode are done much better in Remember and the portal though)

This season suffers from what a lot of shows first seasons do. It was a solid season with some great episodes, but I don’t think it’s the best example of what the show will become outside of 3 or 4 of the episodes which are all in the latter half of the season. Promise is probably the best example of what the show will become inside of the first season. The show tackles themes of abuse in such depth that the string of 4 episodes after the premiere are very misleading in how lighthearted they are. And even the season finale episode doesn’t do the best job at conveying what the show will become with later seasons because of how neatly the conflict is resolved. It seems like a much simpler tale than the serialized story about the struggles to overcome trauma and programming that it is. I will say that it does strongly establish that the relationship between Catra and Adora is the heart and driving force of the series. This is the strongest point of the season and where it most clearly shows what the series is about.

She-ra Season 3 Re-watch Thoughts

I don’t think there’s a single bad or even just okay episode this season. I loved every single episode. I think this is when she-ra became great. There were kernels of the potential the show had here and there throughout the first two seasons (especially the episodes promise and light spinner), but this season really capitalized on all the tension built from the first two. It had a strong focus on the effects of abuse on Adora and Catra. This led to Catra and Adora’s moments of truth. Both aren’t yet able to break free from the effects of the abuse, but while Adora makes steps toward trying to work through it Catra starts to give in and become what her abuse made her. It’s a tragic arc for both actually.

Adora’s guilt complex and crushing expectations make it so that she can’t see her own worth past what she does for others. She starts to stop taking the blame for what others have done with her telling Catra “You made your decision. Now live with it.”. She’s realized she can’t save Catra from herself. If Catra is to be redeemed Catra has to make the decision. Catra falls into denial of her own faults and lets the pain of abandonment fuel her. And in the end every moment breaking Catra down lead to this conclusion. The breaking point for her was when everything she actually wanted was right there, Adora was by her side and shadow weaver was proud of her, and then it was all yanked away.

Adora right after her breakthrough with not taking fault for Catra’s mistake sadly has a major setback when Angella sacrifices herself in Adora’s place. The lesson Angella imparted on Adora was what Adora needed to hear. It was that Adora, not she-ra, was the one who inspired the rebellion and Angella. It is Adora’s courage and character that makes she-ra a hero not she-ra’s abilities. And it’s really sad that this doesn’t have the intended effect because Adora feels like she should have died in Angella’s place and now Glimmer has lost a mother because of it. It gets even worse in season 4 when Glimmer and her fight and there is a rift between them. Adora’s guilt becomes overwhelming.

Season 3 was a turning point for the series. This is where things became serious, where the lines between characters and their opposition to each other was cemented, where mysteries that effect the main characters and change their world start to get revealed, the stakes and consequences are real and everything isn’t fixed by the end. This season finale was game changing. It once again has the Catra and Adora dynamic at its heart and it’s once again complicated and crushed by shadow weaver. The shadow weaver, Catra, and Adora dynamic is the most complex and complicated of the entire show.

Catra’s pain and anger over shadow weaver’s abandonment of her in the fright zone and her preferential treatment of Adora making it so that Catra misplaces her anger about shadow weaver onto Adora is so heartbreaking and emotional. The emotional climax to the season in my eyes is the confrontations between Adora and Catra in the portal reality. All the pain, anger, and sadness is just on full display.

The scene where Adora tells Catra “Everything will be okay as long as we stay together” played right next to the “Promise” scene with the music box playing showing the corruption or distortion of an innocent childhood promise that has brought about so much pain into both of their lives was so impactful to me. And Catra’s breakdown where she tells Adora “I won’t let you win. I’d rather see the whole world end than let that happen.” hurt so much. I kept replaying that scene once I finished the season. I think that scene and the episode “Remember” are my most re-watched until season 5 came around (though it may be promise and the cliff scene that are my most re-watched. I’m not entirely sure.). This show excels at its emotional moments and confrontations. It’s fights aren’t really flashy and it makes up for it by making them highly emotional. The two fights they have in the final two episodes of this season are no exception.

I couldn’t believe what had happened. Everything about this season blew me away when I first watched it. The way shadow weaver revealed Adora’s origins, Adora’s struggle with how everything about her life was forced upon her, Catra’s breakdown over shadow weaver’s abandonment of her, corrupted Catra, both of Adora and Catra’s fights, the entirety of remember, Angella’s sacrifice, and much more. I liked almost everything about this season. The tone was pretty consistent and there weren’t any moments or episodes that I found to be in jarring contrast with the rest of the season. This is actually the season that is the most tonally consistent. I can’t say enough good things about the character drama. Thinking about Catra and Adora’s arcs this season always makes me emotional. I just feel so much for both of them. It’s so tragic how they both got to this point.

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.

She-ra Season 5 Re-watch Thoughts

This season the animation and art design is easily at its most beautiful. The actions are more fluid, the use of color is phenomenal, and the character’s faces and bodies are at their most expressive yet. I really loved the She-ra redesign and prefer it over the original design they had by quite a lot. I loved the scenes where softer colors were used. This is especially prevalent in the final episode after Adora defeats Horde Prime. The colors were breathtaking and it’s clear the time and effort that went into making the final shots be ingrained in your memory. I know it will be ingrained in mine. I thought the animation bumps between seasons 2 and 3 and seasons 3 and 4 were impressive but this is on a different level. It’s like everything was taken up to 11.

She-ra never lost sight of its characters and always managed to keep the focus on them and their struggles despite the larger than life stakes that were happening around them. This season paid off the character arcs of Adora, Catra, and Entrapta really well. My favorite episodes were the ones that were intensely character focused (corridors, save the cat, failsafe, heart). The show knows what its strength is and holds to it.

I came into this series not sure what to expect. I wasn’t familiar with she-ra (I had seen he-man) or the characters and hadn’t read Noelle’s work. So when I watched the first season and saw how nuanced and complicated the characters and their relationships were I was enthralled. I woke up every night that a new season dropped at 2 or 3 in the morning (based on which time zone I was in) to binge the season. I was so impressed with the character work of the show. There aren’t many shows that manage to blow me away with its characters. A large part of that is the fact that I could connect with a lot of the characters and understand them. This show managed to help me in ways I didn’t know I needed at the time and helped me distance myself from a toxic family situation. My thoughts on the show are biased because of this but that’s the case with everyone when it comes to media. There are going to be certain things that connect more with some people than others.

There’s a good and bad way of a show knowing what it is. This show takes knowing what it is in a good direction. It knows it’s a character drama that has the relationships and individual character arcs front and center and it uses the war setting as a vehicle for these things. Not everyone will like this because this makes it so the show focuses on consequences for personal actions more frequently than for war related actions. It isn't a war story. This worked for me, but won't for everyone.

In this season it uses Horde Prime and his “cult” as a metaphor for organized religion which is used to complete Catra, Adora, and Hordak’s arcs of self actualization and coming to terms with what you want and that you have a choice. This I think is done well because of how it matches with it's themes of working through programming and unlearning toxic behavior ingrained by your upbringing. I can easily say that She-ra has produced some of my favorite characters and I loved the conclusions to their arcs.

My one real issue with this season is that I think the tonal issues were jarring. To break it down it went from the premiere “Horde Prime” which was pretty dark showing the hopeless position of the rebellion and Adora’s struggle with her identity now that she-ra is gone and her suicidal drive to push herself to be useful to “Launch” which has a lot of things that are played for laughs and just felt like an odd shift especially considering that it is followed by “Corridors” which is an intense character study of Catra and her pain and loneliness and deals with her coming to terms with the fact that a lot of her anger and pain was misdirected at Adora all these years and that Adora has truly cared about her.

Then “Corridors” is followed by “Stranded” which is much more lighthearted and while it does deal with Adora coming to the decision to go back for Catra and her conflict over doing what she wants over what would be best for Etheria while Glimmer and Bow reconcile (or start to) a lot of the episode is used for levity. Catra is in a life threatening situation so while the reasoning for the main characters making this stop make sense the shift and lack of urgency at times doesn't work well in the context of the season.

Then that episode is followed by “Save the Cat” which is one of the most emotionally charged episodes of the show which has Adora refusing to make the same mistake she made in the pilot and refuses to leave horde prime’s ship without Catra even if it is the death of her. Adora places Catra above everything else. This episode is heartbreaking and calls back to all their misunderstandings, pain, history, and disconnects. This episode is followed by “Taking Control” which I think does a much better job of keeping the tone of “Save the Cat” and moving the plot and character arcs along. But then it’s followed by “Perils of Peekablue” which, while it’s a fun episode, it is very jarring to be pulled out of the very dramatic and dark episodes that came previously. Scorpia's sacrifice at the end worked really well as a precursor to what is waiting for our heroes when they get back to Etheria though so this episode had a better transition to the next than the ones that came before.

I am usually pretty good at being able to switch tones with a show and I think the balance between dark and light has been done very well in this show before in “Princess Prom”, “Roll with It”, “Mer-Mysteries”, “Pulse”, and “Princess Scorpia” to name a few. These episodes however didn’t mesh as well for me. I still enjoy watching them, but I think watching season 5 as a whole makes it clear that these episodes break up the tension too much. I will admit I am a bigger fan of drama than I am of comedy so I gravitated towards the much more serious episodes within the show like "Hero", "Promise", "Remember", "Failsafe", "Light Spinner", etc. I understand why there’s comedy, but I think that instead of having entire episodes dedicated to comedy they should have mixed it in like they do with the ones I named above. I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent because, while She-ra does almost everything else I want from a show, I think this is easily its biggest problem.

I think this season is my favorite season. (It’s a very close race between this season, season 4, and season 3) This season managed to pay off just about everything that was set up in the previous seasons and that is a near insurmountable task for any show. I haven’t felt this satisfied by a series finale in a very long time. The final episode tandem heart parts 1 and 2 left me speechless and I immediately started re-watching the series. I don’t know exactly what it was and how to put it into words, but that finale really hit me. It really felt like what the show was always building towards.

The fact that this big grand war ended not with a big battle, but with Adora and Catra finally coming to an understanding of both themselves and each other felt true to the show. Catra and Adora’s love-hate relationship has been the heart of the show since the beginning and it was their falling out due to their disconnect that kicked the show off in “The Sword” so it’s fitting that it’s them fully reconnecting and understanding each other that ends the series. The emphasis and climax of the show isn’t the big epic battle above, but the love confession happening below. The fact that the show manages to stay so personal and focused despite the stakes being the fate of the universe is a testament to how well written this season is in my opinion. The show comes full circle and I couldn’t have been happier with the result.

🏳️‍🌈 i would like 2 hear about glimmer

YELL HEAH,, I love glimmer omg

I feel for Catra, I really do

Ok but the gif of her and sparkles in the pool is the cutest of them

adora being subtly gay™

The only thing they have in common is purple (and being princesses)

🔵 New! 'Starlight Glimmer '🌌🤩🦄✨🎇🎆🐦 Avaliable in store link in my biography :) // This is acrylic and glitter painting on high quality linen and custom made canvas. The style is defined by sculptural use of paint. It is 3-D, built-up mixture of many layers of thick gesso, paint, sand and other materials.  #mixedmedia on canvas🎨 Size: 38 H x 42 W x 3.5 cm, 15" x 16.5" x 1.9"🖼 //#abstractexpressionism #universe #glow #starlight #prana #blue #chakra #thirdeye #consciousness #astronomy #cosmos #fineart #star #contemporaryart #artlife #abstractart #abstractartist #tbt #artcollector #interior #textured #picoftheday #pamelarys #texture #newhome #artcollector #love #glitter #glimmer https://www.creativeconstellation.org (at Nicosia, Cyprus) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3KWhDjIIaN/?igshid=1sootjza3htlm

🔵 New! 'Starlight Glimmer '🌌🤩🦄✨🎇🎆🐦 Close-up 🎨 Size: 38 H x 42 W x 3.5 cm, 15" x 16.5" x 1.9"🖼 //#abstractexpressionism #universe #glow #starlight #prana #blue #chakra #thirdeye #consciousness #astronomy #cosmos #fineart #star #contemporaryart #artlife #abstractart #abstractartist #tbt #artcollector #interior #textured #picoftheday #pamelarys #texture #newhome #artcollector #love #glitter #glimmer https://www.creativeconstellation.org (at Nur-Sultan) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3NK5DXo7du/?igshid=r52xm58ec0pp

🔵 New! 'Starlight Glimmer '🌌🤩🦄✨🎇🎆🐦 Interiors 🎨 Size: 38 H x 42 W x 3.5 cm, 15" x 16.5" x 1.9"🖼 //#abstractexpressionism #universe #glow #starlight #prana #blue #chakra #thirdeye #consciousness #astronomy #cosmos #fineart #star #contemporaryart #artlife #abstractart #abstractartist #tbt #artcollector #interior #textured #picoftheday #pamelarys #texture #newhome #artcollector #love #glitter #glimmer https://www.creativeconstellation.org (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3PzY7MI5Ch/?igshid=166gkuj3me9wi

Been a while since I drew a new piece for my long-running Xenobabes Floral series! Had this piece collecting dust for over a year, but decided to finish it! Here is Glimmer!

nobody:

and I mean absolutely nobody:

she-ra:

Six Character Challenge:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope this turned out okay! I will add the Captain Marvel and Zane from lego Ninjago later together as the bonuses.

                                                        ~~~~~

If anyone wants to know where the characters are from: Gentle Criminal from My Hero Academia, Desmond Sycamore from Professor Layton, Rayla from The Dragon Prince, Alix from Miraculous Ladybug, Katia from Professor Layton and Glimmer from She-ra.

GlimmerDoodle001 (not from reference)

Happy Birthday Queen Sparkles!✨🎉💜

[image descript: Post war Glimmer beams wryly. Is she telling Bow a joke? Teasing her frenemie, Catra? Is she remarking on Adora looking uncomfortable in clothes other than her usual turtleneck-?]

...more Glimmer--?! ☺️

Thanks for looking! I know these doodles aren't much I'm just glad my brain produced them spontaneously..

Image title: "hey Sparkles" ☺️😼🤣

More meta writings soon!! (read them here)

GlimmerDoodle002 (not from reference)

Happy Birthday Queen Glimmer!! ✨🎉💜

[image descript: Post war Glimmer greeting her best frenemie, Catra. What better way to respond to Catra's 'sparkles' zingers than the bird-?]

...more Glimmer--? 💜

Thanks for looking! I know these doodles aren't much I'm just glad my brain produced them spontaneously..

Image title: Extra Sparkly Glimmer ✨☺️✨

New SPOP meta writings soon!!

(Read them here)