She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a fantastic series, a rich, vibrant, endlessly clever piece of animated storytelling powered by a battery of complex and compelling characters. Naturally, this means I can’t help but speculate, especially after the ending of season four, and decided I might as well pour it all out here, maybe even consolidate things a bit. Naturally, there will be plentiful spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the show yet – and you really, really ought to – stop reading now. Also, just to stress, this is purely speculation, and could be completely wrong, but isn’t letting the imagination rip all part of the fun? 🙂
To say the finale of season 4 was dramatic feels like quite the understatement – the return of Etheria to known space, the arrival of Horde Prime, the activation of the doomsday device at the core of the planet aborted only by the shattering of the sword and the loss of She-Ra, a broken Catra and a guilty Glimmer abducted by Horde Prime, Hordak facing mental wiping, and more besides. Among all of that my mind has latched onto one detail in particular: She-Ra existed before the sword, before the First Ones.
The sword was, in essence, the physical embodiment of what the First Ones shaped She-Ra into, how they bent her to their needs, which prompts a couple of questions. First, what was She-Ra like before the First Ones weaponised her, and is it possible we haven’t actually yet seen the true She-Ra, just the form the First Ones gave her? The rainbow power seen when all the Princesses united at the end of season one, but never since, hints we haven’t. Second, how was she, for want of a better word, summoned? How was the transformation triggered?
Of course, it’s possible the sword was already extant, merely adapted, or there was a different sword, but there are elements to the series, threads and details, that make me wonder if the key isn’t something, or someone, else entirely.
Catra.
Why? Well, to start with, the feline girl is truly formidable, capable of going toe-to-toe with living goddess She-Ra, which I believe no-one else has been able to do, and even overcoming a raging Hordak toting a devastatingly-powerful arm cannon. Yes, enhanced speed, strength and agility are likely traits of her race, and yes the Horde training would have helped, in spite of her open lack of commitment, but I can’t helping thinking there’s deeper things at play here.
This idea is strengthened when you notice that we so far know nothing of Catra’s origins. We know she grew up with Adora under the ‘care’ of Shadow-Weaver, but that’s it. There’s been no trace of her culture or other members of her race, either, beyond a brief glimpse of another feline in one of Light Hope’s projections. It also makes you wonder if she, like Adora, came from a world other than Etheria; maybe even the same one.
(As an aside, I do wonder about Catra’s headpiece. She didn’t have it as a young child, yet it certainly seems to mean a lot to her, given she keeps it by her bed, and picked it up again after tearing it off and hurling it down. A gift from Adora, and thus visual evidence she can’t let go of them, as much as she wants to?)
Speaking of Shadow-Weaver, her treatment of the two, praising and lauding Adora, belittling and dismissing Catra, to such an extent it has to count as persistent emotional and psychological abuse of both, is telling, too. Why treat them in such diametrically opposed fashions? You’d think she was determined to keep them apart, to drive an insurmountable wedge between them. Notably, she failed. Then, Adora left the Horde.
All of Catra’s subsequent behaviour, up to and including trying to destroy reality, can be traced back to Shadow-Weaver’s abuse. Adora leaving, breaking their promise, a betrayal and an abandonment to someone for whom she was the only bright spot, a rock to cling to in the storm, was a catalyst that unleashed a childhood’s worth of rage and jealousy and bitterness. Catra and Adora have been driven so far apart it seems near-impossible for them to reunite, and I believe that was always Shadow-Weaver’s plan.
She knows more than she’s letting on; much more. She certainly knows Catra’s origins, and she clearly knew the truth about She-Ra. She’s playing a long game, a very long game, that will ultimately only benefit her – we’ve seen what she’s willing to do to obtain power and control – and keeping Adora and Catra apart seems key to that. I even find it interesting that, in season three, the sight of Shadow-Weaver and Adora together is what pushed Catra completely over the edge. Given Shadow-Weaver knows exactly how to manipulate the feline girl – look at her escape from the cell and imminent banishment to Beast Island – it’s tempting to think she had an ulterior motive for joining that particular mission.
She’s doing her best to shape events to her advantage, and she’s not alone. The same was true of the corrupted Light Hope, guiding She-Ra not towards realising her full potential, but activating the doomsday device. An important element to that was severing all emotional attachments Adora had, especially that to Catra; that a pivotal moment in the fracturing of their friendship took place in Light-Hope’s sanctum is not a coincidence. Two interests, apparently at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both putting a lot of effort into and emphasis on keeping Adora and Catra apart. Why?
(Random tangent speculation: is Shadow-Weaver a First One, or descended from them?)
True, having no attachments, no bonds, no-one to care personally about, makes it potentially easier to activate the doomsday device, but the emphasis on Adora’s link to Catra makes me think it’s either deeper than either of them truly realise (possibly the feline does, but refuses to accept it, or even acknowledge it) and thus the biggest threat to the plan(s), or there’s more at play. Maybe even both.
(Final tangent speculation: it’s a curious detail that the Princesses and friends are all human or very human-like, with the mild exception of the goat-people, and the less human races are prominent in the Horde and the Wasteland; also that this reflects the divide between the two main characters. If this were any other show I’d dismiss it as pandering to a cheap trope, but this is She-Ra…)
It’s also interesting that neither Catra or Adora has managed to truly flourish alone, to the extent their journeys somewhat parallel each other. All that considered, if it’s so important to keep Adora and Catra apart, to the point you’d risk the end of everything, what happens should they come back together? What happens when, shorn of all baggage and able to start healing, to overcome the self-destructive behaviours embedded by their abuse, they can finally, truly unite?
What happens when two halves of a whole are finally back as one?
Foxy Musings 