i’ve talked a lot about catra being the scapegoat, but now i want to talk about adora being the golden child. it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, that’s for sure.
when adora was a child, shadow weaver told her that she was responsible for catra’s behavior, and by extension, her punishments. no, adora wouldn’t be punished for it, but catra would, and that was probably worse. this likely instilled the idea that, if catra got hurt because she “misbehaved” (read: did normal kid things), then it was actually adora’s fault–not catra’s (which it isn’t) nor shadow weaver’s (which it is). if catra suffered, then it was because adora wasn’t trying hard enough–to distract shadow weaver with her own accomplishments or convince catra to stay in line or whatever.
catra completely misinterpreted this, assuming that adora enjoyed this favoritism. is this the reaction of someone who enjoys being the golden child, or is this the reaction of someone who’s terrified?
a lot of people have assumed that adora’s behavior is arrogant, but i think it’s actually just…what she’s been told and taught–
–that she’s important, but not necessarily useful unless she’s doing everything the “right” way. sometimes, being important isn’t actually very comforting; it just gives you more power to make mistakes and let people down.
shadow weaver gave adora the illusion of control over more than her own behavior, and when that illusion crumbled, adora was left with…herself, and a sword. it’s no wonder that she clung to the sword as a source of validation and importance, a way for her to actually help people.
this also explains why she feels such strong guilt for anything bad that happens around her, which light hope recognizes and exploits. all adora wants to do is protect her friends (and, y’know, etheria–no pressure though), but what if she only hurts them? she’s convinced that she does have the power to save everyone, that she is important enough to do everything, and yet, she fails, again and again. even when she has the physical power to throw things around, she can’t heal plumeria’s tree or glimmer’s abilities, because she’s just not good enough.
being the golden child, being told that you’re special and amazing and perfect…a lot of people buckle under that pressure and end up paralyzed by fear that they can’t truly accomplish anything.
luckily, adora has found friends who truly do not blame her for not being able to save everyone, and she finds the strength to get up again and try.
Netflxi’s She-Ra is an excellent example of how you do a show without heteronormativity or cisnormativity.
It’s just… not there. No one assumes that since Glimmer is jealous of Bo and Perfuma when they got to the ball together, it must be because she has a crush on Bo. It goes without question that Glimmer is legitimately jealous just because Bo’s been her only friend for years. No one bats an eyelash at two girls simmering with tension cutting up a dance floor. During the prom episode there was zero drama over ‘finding dates’, and the ‘make-over’ sequence was played for fun dress-ups and laughs, with no protests over Catra just opting to wear a suit, or ‘jokes’ about a muscular woman like Scorpia wearing a gown (which she looked amazing in). No one has said a SINGLE WORD about girls trying to get boyfriends, or vice versa. Characters get starry-eyed (for a variety of reasons, and often just ambiguously) over other characters regardless of gender, and no one finds it the least bit inappropriate or even noteworthy.
There is zero reference to anyone needing to uphold some kind of pretense of masculinity or femininity. Zero time is spent exploring anyone’s insecurity over their looks or styling or how ‘attractive’ they are, either. There isn’t even an awkward sideways glance when Sea Hawk announces, via song ‘some say I’m a man, what I know for certain is that I’m Sea Hawk’, when most shows would take the opening to offer up some sort of dig on assumption that he was ‘accidentally’ discrediting his masculinity. The awkwardness in the sequence is reserved for the fact that he keeps trying to sing his self-styled ‘shanties’ in the first place.
I mean just look at some of this stuff:
(Sea Hawk flirting with Mermista)
(Adora and Glimmer, chilling in a hot tub, no feet apart because no one cares who’s gay)
(Mermista blushing because She-Ra thanked her)
(Catra’s ball outfit)
(Scorpia’s)
(Bo fanboying over Sea Hawk)
And there’s WAY more than just that (but most of it would be too spoiler-y). So yeah it’s wonderfully relaxed and wholesome.
it doesn’t matter what they do to us you know. you look out for me and i look out for you. nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other.
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