osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2019-11-17 08:05 am
osprey_archer) wrote2019-11-17 08:05 am
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She-Ra season 4
When I visited asakiyume, we watched the latest season of She-Ra, and what can I see except MY HEART. MY FEELINGS. ALL OF MY EMOTIONS.
First, a hope for season 5: I hope Catra and Glimmer spend at least a couple of episodes (IF NOT MORE) trapped on Horde Prime’s ship, where they are forced to work together in this overwhelmingly hostile environment and when they make it back to the surface of Etheria Adora is all “YOU’RE FRIENDS NOW??” because on top of Glimmer taking magic lessons from Shadow Weaver in season 4, Adora must feel like Glimmer is taking on all her old friends from the Horde.
Speaking of Shadow Weaver! In season 4, she’s mostly been playing a mentor role for Glimmer, teaching her magic and so forth, but my feeling is that she’s biding her time. For what, exactly, I’m not sure, and perhaps she isn’t either: maybe she’s just waiting around for an opportunity to gain power again, and positioning herself as magic tutor to the Queen of Bright Moon is just one possible route to that end.
Although (if and when Glimmer returns to Bright Moon) now that Glimmer’s father is back, his presence may cut off that possibility for Shadow Weaver. And, of course, we’re probably going to get all sorts of insight into the master and student relationship Shadow Weaver and Micah used to have, back before she was Shadow Weaver…
(I also think that Micah’s reappearance makes it almost inevitable that Angella will return from the limbo realm she went into at the end of season 3, because it would be SO cruel to have Micah return home after years on Beast Island and NEVER SEE HIS BELOVED WIFE AGAIN. But we’ll see.)
Speaking of Beast Island! How much do I love the fact that Entrapta adores Beast Island?? It’s just so ENTRAPTA. I’m pretty sure that her burning curiosity is the thing that kept her safe from the island’s seeping despair for most of the time that she was there - in fact it’s interesting that Entrapta only began to feel that despair after she saw her former friends again, and remembered her difficulties with friendship, which is an arena in which she feels much less confident than technology. And, of course, I love Bow and Adora’s very characteristic attempts to help her: Bow gives a rousing speech about friendship and Adora is all “HEY ENTRAPTA WE HAVE A SPACESHIP.”
However, I think my very favorite part of the season was Scorpia’s arc, because so much of her identity is wrapped up not just in her love for Catra but her overall sense of herself as a loyal friend - which previously has meant that she keeps coming back to Catra even when Catra treats her quite badly.
So it was so satisfying (in a rip-my-heart-out kind of way) to see Scorpia come to the realization that her approach to friendship, which is so central to her sense of her own identity, is actually harmful and misguided - and it’s very characteristic that the thing that pushes her over the edge is not Catra’s treatment of her, but the threat that Catra poses to Emily the bot - and, even more, the realization that Emily is in danger because of Catra’s earlier betrayal of Entrapta. Scorpia doesn’t have much sense of self-preservation, at least in the context of friendship; it’s the fact that Catra has hurt other people that drives Scorpia away from her.
And that that moment where Scorpia looks at Catra and says, “You’re a bad friend.” And she just sounds so desolate: it’s really hurt her to come to this realization. But once she sees it, she looks it in the face and she takes the next step: she doesn’t just break ties with Catra, she tries to undo the harm that Catra has done by leaving the Horde to save Entrapta. Uuuuugh I just want good things for Scorpia.
I also want good things for Catra (really I want everyone to band together to fight Horde Prime and by the end of the series they’re just one big happy gang of friends) but, let’s face it, it’s much easier to imagine a happy future for Scorpia, who knows what she wants (friendship!) and has most of the skills that she needs to get it, now that she’s realized that for a friendship to work it’s necessary for your friends to like you back and be nice to you at least most of the time.
Whereas Catra is still stuck in “ALL I WANT IS CONQUEST” mode (when really she wants friendship too, but she won’t admit it because friendship hurt her once and therefore she’s written it off forever), although maaaaaybe after the ruin of her plans she’s starting to rethink this a bit. And that could be fostered if she and Glimmer are forced to work together on Horde Prime’s ship! But we’ll just have to wait for season 5 to see if my dreams in that regard come true.
asakiyume, we watched the latest season of She-Ra, and what can I see except MY HEART. MY FEELINGS. ALL OF MY EMOTIONS.First, a hope for season 5: I hope Catra and Glimmer spend at least a couple of episodes (IF NOT MORE) trapped on Horde Prime’s ship, where they are forced to work together in this overwhelmingly hostile environment and when they make it back to the surface of Etheria Adora is all “YOU’RE FRIENDS NOW??” because on top of Glimmer taking magic lessons from Shadow Weaver in season 4, Adora must feel like Glimmer is taking on all her old friends from the Horde.
Speaking of Shadow Weaver! In season 4, she’s mostly been playing a mentor role for Glimmer, teaching her magic and so forth, but my feeling is that she’s biding her time. For what, exactly, I’m not sure, and perhaps she isn’t either: maybe she’s just waiting around for an opportunity to gain power again, and positioning herself as magic tutor to the Queen of Bright Moon is just one possible route to that end.
Although (if and when Glimmer returns to Bright Moon) now that Glimmer’s father is back, his presence may cut off that possibility for Shadow Weaver. And, of course, we’re probably going to get all sorts of insight into the master and student relationship Shadow Weaver and Micah used to have, back before she was Shadow Weaver…
(I also think that Micah’s reappearance makes it almost inevitable that Angella will return from the limbo realm she went into at the end of season 3, because it would be SO cruel to have Micah return home after years on Beast Island and NEVER SEE HIS BELOVED WIFE AGAIN. But we’ll see.)
Speaking of Beast Island! How much do I love the fact that Entrapta adores Beast Island?? It’s just so ENTRAPTA. I’m pretty sure that her burning curiosity is the thing that kept her safe from the island’s seeping despair for most of the time that she was there - in fact it’s interesting that Entrapta only began to feel that despair after she saw her former friends again, and remembered her difficulties with friendship, which is an arena in which she feels much less confident than technology. And, of course, I love Bow and Adora’s very characteristic attempts to help her: Bow gives a rousing speech about friendship and Adora is all “HEY ENTRAPTA WE HAVE A SPACESHIP.”
However, I think my very favorite part of the season was Scorpia’s arc, because so much of her identity is wrapped up not just in her love for Catra but her overall sense of herself as a loyal friend - which previously has meant that she keeps coming back to Catra even when Catra treats her quite badly.
So it was so satisfying (in a rip-my-heart-out kind of way) to see Scorpia come to the realization that her approach to friendship, which is so central to her sense of her own identity, is actually harmful and misguided - and it’s very characteristic that the thing that pushes her over the edge is not Catra’s treatment of her, but the threat that Catra poses to Emily the bot - and, even more, the realization that Emily is in danger because of Catra’s earlier betrayal of Entrapta. Scorpia doesn’t have much sense of self-preservation, at least in the context of friendship; it’s the fact that Catra has hurt other people that drives Scorpia away from her.
And that that moment where Scorpia looks at Catra and says, “You’re a bad friend.” And she just sounds so desolate: it’s really hurt her to come to this realization. But once she sees it, she looks it in the face and she takes the next step: she doesn’t just break ties with Catra, she tries to undo the harm that Catra has done by leaving the Horde to save Entrapta. Uuuuugh I just want good things for Scorpia.
I also want good things for Catra (really I want everyone to band together to fight Horde Prime and by the end of the series they’re just one big happy gang of friends) but, let’s face it, it’s much easier to imagine a happy future for Scorpia, who knows what she wants (friendship!) and has most of the skills that she needs to get it, now that she’s realized that for a friendship to work it’s necessary for your friends to like you back and be nice to you at least most of the time.
Whereas Catra is still stuck in “ALL I WANT IS CONQUEST” mode (when really she wants friendship too, but she won’t admit it because friendship hurt her once and therefore she’s written it off forever), although maaaaaybe after the ruin of her plans she’s starting to rethink this a bit. And that could be fostered if she and Glimmer are forced to work together on Horde Prime’s ship! But we’ll just have to wait for season 5 to see if my dreams in that regard come true.