Catra

I want to talk briefly about the cartoon She-ra from Netflix, which I have recently analyzed here in more dept to be able to speak about with some property. This commentary is specifically about the end of third season, which I firmly object to. I reunited arguments for how dishonest it is to say that someone like Catra is the highest representation of evil.

The protagonist Adora has directly harmed her villain Catra in the end of first season, without enough reason of self defense, to the point when Catra almost dies falling from a cliff. Adora should be fighting against Catra’s army and stopped doing that to come after her, even if this wouldn’t help her win the battle. The antagonist couldn’t possibly have caused Adora any similar damage because she was several times weaker, no matter how much she tried.

Adora has stalked Catra many times after the villain refuse to come to her side (which is her right), even when Adora admittedly had bigger problems to solve. Besides, she have incited hatred towards Catra to her princess friends, while they made stereotypical villain fantasies of her in a dehumanizing game. Then, some of Adora’s friends morally assault Catra while trying to capture her, calling her names and implying she didn’t deserved any friends, only because she was trying to escape her capture as best as she could.

When Catra told Adora in the first episode that their caregiver Shadow Weaver was threatening her life if she didn’t go out and did what she wanted, the protagonist responded that Catra should simply say no and leave Shadow Weaver besides the threats. That she should “draw a line. (…) A line that was no defense against death” (Andrea Dworkin). She throws her under the bus. Adora had ways of defeating Shadow Weaver because of her immense power and she didn’t do so.

In the end, Adora forgave Shadow Weaver and said she would trust the woman. She guaranteed her safety and left a rout opened for her to come back and torture Catra in one of the final episodes of third season.

Adora is an abuser. She have neglected, assaulted, stalked, incited hatred, violated and helped other people violate Catra. When Catra says the problems of her life are all related to Adora, she is correct. Adora deserves to be called out because she is one of the perpetrators. Catra has the right to stand against her. Also, when your abuser is an indestructible omnipresent and omnipotent God that has nature and luck conspiring to help her abuse, the solution is to destroy this God’s planet. Luckily for us, this doesn’t happen in real life and this cartoon is only trying to create unrealistic explanations to justify its defense of abuse. In the real world, oppressed people are not being responsible for the destruction of the planet. But they might want to stand up and try to destroy their oppressor’s power. This I believe in and support.

It is honestly disgusting to me that they are saying to be “progressive” and “forward thinking”, when this sounds like nothing more than discrimination, especially when you consider Catra is an unapologetic sensual butch lesbian in a way that the puritanical Adora isn’t. As a left wing person, I am insulted to be associated with these people’s narrative and I am calling it out. “It’s about time women stopped begging for scraps the way that you are (…) for these corrupted bastards who hate you” (Magdalen Berns).