I feel like Bow and Glimmer's in-fandom reputations with their reactions to Catradora should be switched. I feel like Glimmer wouldn't really give a shit but Bow is so Stresso-Depresso-Needs-An-Expresso this season:
This is part of a larger piece and still technically WIP, but I love this lil floating Adora all by herself, works great as a standalone section, the final thing is a much bigger canvas so I couldn't give her that good of a resolution and I somewhat slacked on some things (feet, and shading a lil)
Yeaaah, it hurt the first time, didn't it? But now... twice.
I just...
The desperation in Crowley's and Catra's actions:
Catra runs away, then puts up a physical fight, then cries and asks Adora what she REALLY wants, implying, in the process, what Catra herself actually wants.
Crowley gets angry, and then he gives Aziraphale a bitter, rough kiss in a last attempt to get him to stay. In a last attempt to get him to understand that he wants him.
The naive ignorance behind Adora's and Aziraphale's:
Adora thinks that trusting Shadoweaver and freeing the magic is the best and only thing to do because she wants to save Etheria. She tosses her own interests aside to save the planet, including Catra.
Aziraphale thinks that trusting the Metatron and going back to Heaven is the best thing to do because he wants to make life on earth better. But he also wants to make Crowley's life better, he wants for him to be happy again.
What neither Adora nor Aziraphale understand is that the only thing Catra and Crowley need in order to be happy is them.
If Adora sacrifices herself to save Etheria, Catra will be alive but she will never be happy again.
If Aziraphale goes back to Heaven, with or without Crowley, the latter knows that Zira will just be manipulated into falling out of love for him. Becoming another Gabriel. Crowley remembers how the "good side" treated him before he fell. He remembers how it treated Aziraphale before he said "enough". He doesn't want for any of it to happen, ever again.
Both Catra and Crowley know that they're gonna lose Adora and Aziraphale if they listen to them, and then come to understand that they'll lose them anyway.
Today I present to you the moment in Shera that had my ass shaking and quaking. I when I say I was sat and the butt was clenched. I literally love this episode on season 5. I mean let’s be real season 5 was the best season. You can @ me if you want.
If you hadn’t noticed Catra is my favorite character of Shera and seeing my child down like this had me wanting to punch my screen 😏
ribs by the crane wives is about catra in she-ra season five.
'the dark doesn't frighten me i chose to close my eyes/it is mine' horde prime lights up everything bright and clean. catra chooses to find solace in the shadows - she chooses to change. this is especially clear in 'corridors', when she stands between the bright light of horde prime and the dim corridor that the memory of her and adora is in. she chooses the darkness, chooses the safety - chooses the right path.
'the night doesn't frighten me i chose to let it thrive/it is mine' very few people trust catra when she returns. she has to be on the same team as shadow weaver. she has so many reasons why she could turn her back on everyone. she almost does. but she chooses to continue making the right decisions, chooses to endure despite everything. we see so many times throughout the series where she makes bad decisions, turns away from what she knows is the right choice. she tries to squash out the voice telling her to change - until she doesn't. until she makes the right decision and continues to do so. in some ways it was for adora. mostly, i'd argue it was for herself.
To celebrate, here's a biology sheet regarding Etherian sorcery magic and how it works. I also digressed a little bit into the effects the Spell of Obtainment had on Shadow Weaver’s appearance!
i love stories in which the characters have dubious free will. like how much of what they're doing is them? how much of it is the true character as opposed to the motives of the villains/the story? is not having free will in fact part of their identity, so that, if they gained it, they would be less of themselves? even though something else is dictating their actions, do their true selves shine through? does their internal self change if they have lost a free will - but only partially? who dictates this transformation? are they more themselves now they are forcefully influenced by a being/story instead of Society?
ok wait so hold the fuck up. in the scene where adoras dying at the heart, catras telling her to wake up and that shes never given up on anything in her life, right? and adora responds with "its too late, ive failed." she actually says these words. like, mumbles them aloud or something, bc its clear that catra can hear (she responds). sO WHAT IM TRYING TO SAY IS THAT CATRA THOUGHT ADORAS LAST WORDS WERE GOING TO BE ABOUT HOW SHES FUCKING FAILED AND WE AND CATRA BOTH KNOW THAT BEING A FAILURE WAS LIKE ADORAS #1 FEAR WHAT THE FUCK CATRA THOUGHT ADORA WOULD DIE BELIEVING SHES A FAILURE FUCKING IMAGINE THTA OH GOD