Alright, it's the next morning and now I do feel like getting into it.

Okay, so from your description, you're either a casual shipper (meaning you just don't get really invested in any particular ship), or you're a multi-shipper (meaning you can see and support multiple ships within a piece of media and/or multiple ships for a particular character). Both are very valid ways to approach shipping in general.

Its also perfectly valid if you don't see any shipping potential at all. Not everyone is gonna get the same vibes off a group of characters. We're all gonna view the media we consume and the characters in that media through the lens of our own experience and bias. That shapes if and how we choose to ship them (or not ship them at all as the case my be).

But if you're not shipping because of "the conflict it often brings into fandoms", then your problem is not with the media, the characters, or the ship. The problem is with other people.

Real, living, IRL people who have autonomy and should be held accountable for their actions.

Everyone is gonna have ships they don't like or ships they wish they didn't have to see. That's why most social media and fandom sites allow you to filter or even all out block tags. So that you don't have to see ships you don't like.

The problem is not shipping.

The problem is people disapproving of a particular ship and instead of just blocking the tag, deciding instead to make it everyone else's problem.

You see it even with other aspects of fandom that don't have anything to do with shipping.

You see it any time the creators make a significant change to an existing franchise. Some recent examples:

All of these created conflict in their respective fandoms. And none of them have to do with shipping.

(The MotU one was really bad, too. The He-Man.org forums are STILL a dumpster fire, almost a month later.)

If you dislike shipping in general, that's up to you. I realize it can be annoying when all anyone in fandom is talking about are their romantic pairs. But people liking it when fictional characters kiss is not the problem with fandom. Fictional characters are just that: fictional. They have no autonomy of their own. They're basically dolls for people to play with.

The problem lays in the people, the real live human people, moving those dolls.

The "conflict" in fandoms is a human problem, not a shipping problem.

Blaming shipping distracts from the issue.

I started watching the 2002 He-Man series recently. I never watched it back when it was still a thing in the early 2000s because 1) I don’t know it existed, and 2) I wasn’t really into the Masters of the Universe fandom at that time anyway so I had no reason to seek it out. So, these takes are coming at you from someone with no prior knowledge of the show and no emotional investment in the world or characters save for what I have already learned off the Grayskull wiki before watching (and what I have learned through ‘pop-culture osmosis’ here on Tumblr). 

There is one episode in particular that kinda bothers me. 

Season 1, Episode 15

The Mystery of Anwat Gar

The episode begins with Sorceress have a prophetic dream about Skeletor gaining new and formidable power from the ancient and mysterious island of Anwat Gar. Which was once home to the (now almost extinct*) Gar race. 

This is pretty average for Masters of the Universe cartoons as almost all MotU cartoons are made to sell toys. Unsurprisingly, the climactic fight of the episode features both He-Man and Skeletor getting gimmicky new armor which I’m sure Mattel happily turned a profit on. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Back to the summary. 

Hearing Sorceress’ prophecy, He-Man and Man-at-Arms rush off to Anwat Gar to stop Skeletor from gaining this fearsome power. 

While there, they are confronted by multiple traps which they must, thwart, escape, or overcome in order to get to their goal. Most of their strategies for getting out of these traps seem to be breaking or outright destroying them.

Finally, they get to the center of the island in which there is a large temple modeled after Japanese architecture (which provides a flimsy excuse for Mattel modeling their gimmicky new toys after samurai armor). There, they meet the guardian of the power, our newest action figure available at a store near you! 

Sy-Klone

Tell your parents to buy him now, kids! 

Anyway, Sy-Klone explains that the power He-Man and Man-at-Arms are seeking is sacred to his people and that he cannot let outsiders desecrate the temple and loot it. He-Man tries to reason with Sy-Klone and explain that they don’t want to steal it, they just want to take it back to Eternos with them to keep it away from Skeletor. (Ya know, cause that’s not “stealing” at all.)

There’s the obligatory fight to show off Sy-Klone’s action figure features. This show was made to sell toys, they have to.

At some point while Sy-Klone and He-Man are fighting, Skeletor has already managed to get inside the temple and steal the power for himself. There’s the traditional gloating in front of his enemies before Skeletor uses it to do a magical girl transformation that gives him to fetishized sci-fi samurai armor pictured above. 

Skeletor cackles evilly and then exits stage left, vowing to use his now power armor to destroy Castle Grayskull and claim it’s power for his own, blah, blah, blah. Standard villain shpiel. 

He-Man then goes and grabs the second set of overtly culture-coded armor for himself and goes to fight Skeletor. 

They fight. 

He-Man wins. 

Skeletor escapes. 

There’s not much else to be said about that. It’s pretty standard fair for a shallow children’s cartoon who’s purpose is not to tell a story but just to sell merchandise. You really can’t expect much. 

He-Man returns to the temple with both sets of armor. 

Now, one would think this is the part where the “hero” returns these very significant cultural artifacts to their rightful place in the temple under the custodianship of the guardian who is a member of the culture these artifacts are from. This is a kid’s show and -presumably- is also meant to tell some sort of moral to each episode beyond just “buy our toys”. 

But no. 

Instead of giving them back, He-Man fucking obliterates them. 

Right in front of the guardian who’s life’s mission was to protect them. 

Sy-Klone tries to stop him, but is thrown back by the force of He-Man’s power and can do nothing but look on in horror as these sacred artifacts of his dying culture are reduced to nothing but dust. 

And I’m not exaggeration. 

I mean -literal- dust.

Watching that, I 100% expected Sy-Klone to become an enemy. Really, and truly. I would have become He-Man’s enemy if I watched him destroy something significant and sacred to my culture. And I’m pretty casual about my cultural identity. But Sy-Klone devoted his entire life to preserving and protecting these items. So, as pissed as I would be, he’s gotta be that times 1000, right?

Wrong. 

After the artifacts are destroyed, Sy-Klone doesn’t even bat an eyelash. 

He’s just like, “My life’s purpose is gone? Oh, well. Guess I’ll just go die now.”

(This being a Japanese-coded society, I can only assume he was going to commit the Gar equivalent of seppuku.)

But He-Man stops him and is all like, “Listen, I know I just destroyed one of the last remnants of your dying culture and made you watch while I did it, but how about you come join my crew.”

And that’s what Sy-Klone does. 

The End

And, like the original He-Man show from the 80s, and the New Adventures of He-Man show from the later-80s, this one had a “moral” at the end of the episode. 

The “moral” of the episode was this:

But like… what the fuck was “right” in that episode? How the hell are we, the viewer supposed to know what “the right thing” was. 

We just watched our hero… 

Like, what the fuck, He-Man!?

I thought He-Man was supposed to be the good guy. But, I really don’t think there were any “good guys” in this episode and I cannot fathom what the writers were thinking when they drafted this episode or what the producers were thinking when they pushed it through production. 

I just-

This episode really, really bothered me and I had to vent about it. 

–

* Gar being nearly extinct is not mentioned outright in the show, but it is implied since the island is a ruin, and on the Grayskull wiki and the Classics line of the toys outright call the Gar a “rare race”.

You know, as much as I loved watching the 2002 He-Man show while it was running, him destroying the stones did confuse me since it was Sy-Klone’s life job protecting them before joining the Masters. It’s been a while since I’ve watched that particular episode (since rl and all) but I don’t remember an in-universe explanation on why they weren’t moved elsewhere for safety (Castle Grayskull since the Sorceress takes her job completely seriously to Teela’s emotional detriment or somewhere relatively safe in the main city) and thus allowing Sy-Klone to do double duty without him worrying that Anwat-Gar might get trashed again due to someone following Skeletor’s footsteps. Having Skeletor think they were destroyed is another possible safeguard since he’s selfishly petty like that and won’t let anyone get the magical power sources if he couldn’t get them first. You got any answers @emperorsfoot?

I have no answers. Out of universe, I think the writers either didn't think about it or else just didn't care. While this show did do a lot for MotU lore and world building, its main purpose was never to tell a story or show us another world, it’s purpose was always to sell toys. So some things just aren’t going to make sense. 

In universe, eh... well... It’s a established fact that the Gar are looked down on and persecuted against. Adam doesn’t show any overt feelings of disliking the Gar, but he is still young and he did grow up steeped in that kind of culture and society. He could have been acting on some kind of subconscious or programmed way of thinking that it would be better to destroy a Gar artifact than take it someplace safe. And it’s not like there weren’t opinions for Adam to keep the armor stones safe. He could have,

He did not have to out-and-out destroy them! And he especially did not have to destroy them while the guy who devoted his life to protecting them watched! 

Seriously, Sy-Klone should not have joined up with him and become a Master. After watching that, he should have sworn revenge on He-Man and joined up with Skeletor. After everything that happened in the episode, Sy-Klone returning to Eternos with He-Man and Duncan made no sense! 

But that’s Protagonist Centered Morality for ya. 

I remember reading @emperorsfoot monologues fics qnd it made me think on Max's relationships. He's beloved and respected by many but not his own son. He sees a Ben in a relationship with someone who's always going beyond their reach. Ben indulging in heavy alcohol and sideways glances at someone who's not his wife. A man admired by all but not his own wife. And he sees Ben and his son, and he hears a familiar echo. All his life he wanted to mold Ben into the kind of man he knew he could be. And in a way everyone did. The universe. In a way he will never know the man's own son. Like a worn action figure with loose joints on the verge of breaking. So here I propose an idea: it's him that does the toast at that wedding remembering he got there and seeing his grandson needing one piece of guidance. But for once to not do the thing he would have done. And make the decision only he can make. Telling Ben that relationships are built on trust and communication. And love doesn't mean obligation it's the best kind of freedom. But only if you are willing to push the door.

I know max is beloved by everyone but people forget his Canon flaws. He's endangered so many bc of his unnecessary need for secrecy and headstrong attitude that's caused his children to stray into their own lives. Imagine the summer never happening and Gwen suddenly discovering her power. Imagine if he told Ben his work with the plumbers the night he got the watch. So much grief and trouble that could have been avoided. Many people today are beloved but could be vilified after death with no way of explaining oneself. So many heroes are defined by their failings or only remembered for their feats on in death. Achilles heel and odyseus hubris

(As a point of clarification, Ben does not turn to alcoholism in my fic. I think there’s, like, one scene of him, Rook, and Kevin all drinking together. But that’s it.)

What I really like about this post is that you point out how Max’s guarded behavior and secrecy to a fault can, and has caused problems for the other characters. 

@freshcreationgarden​ mentions that Max could have talked to Ben about aliens, and tech, and everything else he knew the very first night when Ben got the Omnitrix. Warning and trying to educate Ben at the very start could have prevented many of the problems they encountered in the OS. But he didn't. It took Phil Billings showing up and putting Max to the kids, to get Max to come clean and explain his past, experiences, and knowledge. 

More than that, Max’s adherence to keeping Plumbers a secret have lead to negative consequences and circumstances for other characters too. When we first meet Kevin, he is an emotionally unbalanced, homeless child, from a broken home. He has powers and is not shy about using them. But after that fight with Ben, at the end of the episode, what does Max do about this child with powers that need a responsible adult who has experience with aliens and powers? Nothing. Max does nothing. And I don’t mean he just doesn’t grab unconscious Kevin and take him with them. Kevin is not Max’s kid. He’s not obligated to him like that. 

But Max used to be a Plumber. He has knowledge and -presumably- connections. He could have called someone who WAS still an active Plumber to come pick up and take care of this dangerous minor with superpowers. That is literally the bare minimum he could have done as a “responsible adult”. But Max doesn’t even do that. Keeping the secret about the Plumbers is more important to him than this homeless child. 

This is one of those glaring discrepancies in SPoP: the concept of Hordak (per Huntara) wasting troops versus his canonical reluctance to… well, waste troops.

Now, this can be rationalized by assuming that Huntara means something different when she says that Hordak “threw soldiers away.” Maybe she means that he didn’t value his troops. Maybe it was an emotional thing, rather than a practical one. But, given how harsh Huntara tends to be, and how practically-minded she is, I don’t know that that interpretation works very well for me.

Instead, what I wonder is if Huntara witnessed a less-seasoned, new-to-command Hordak using his troops the way Prime would use his troops.

After all, Prime has access to an apparently endless supply of robots and clones. Both readily manufactured whenever he wishes. In terms of military strategy, it would not surprise me if Prime used those numbers to his advantage, essentially throwing bodies (both mechanical and otherwise) at the enemy until they submitted. Which would explain why the faction is called “the Horde,” wouldn’t it? 

A newly-stranded Hordak would likely have only that concept of strategy to refer to when handling his own army. He’d only really know one way of doing battle: throw troops at the problem until it surrenders. Or dies.

So, in those early days, Hordak may have still been operating on Galactic Horde logic. He may not have been accustomed to dealing with soldiers that could not be easily replenished via cloning vats. And he may have made military errors that reflected that limited experience and lack of familiarity with non-clone troops.

Now, in the present portion of the war, Hordak has learned to deal with “regular” soldiers and no longer makes the mistake of using inapplicable Galactic Horde strategy. Hence this odd discrepancy in his portrayal.

Also, in the battles we see the “good guys” pointedly avoid killing so like, what did “throwing them away” entail? Getting captured by princesses and set free?

This is why I subscribe to the theory that it wasn’t really Hordak that conquered Etheria, but the Scorpion Kingdom. Hordak just happened to be given the credit. 

Remember when Scorpia tells Catra -in season 1- that “no one really liked her family even before the Horde”. That line was meant to imply that the Scorpion Kingdom was... at the very least, less than altruistic, at worse, just as war-mongering as the Horde. 

Later, in season 4, Scorpia takes up to Horror Hall, the seat of power for the old Scorpion Kingdom. (We’re just gonna skate over that it’s official name is “Horror Hall”! I feel like that should be self explanatory.) And Scorpia shows up portraits of her family, and we zoom in on her grandfather, the Scorpion King, and she mentioned that he was not a good person. 

I feel like it’s more like Hordak allied himself with the Scorpion King, and it was the Scorpion King that conquered the majority of Etheria, and it was the Scorpion King that was “throwing troops away”. 

When it comes to show and tell in writing, people often get stuck on “show, don’t tell” as a golden rule. But I think the more important thing to keep in mind is not telling your reader the opposite of what you’re showing them, unless you are deliberately building up an unreliable narrative.

What I keep coming back to is that in the finale season of She Ra and the Princesses of Power we were told that Catra is Adora’s happy ending, but we were shown in all the previous seasons why she couldn’t be. Catra was constantly tearing Adora down, blaming her for her own lost favor with their mutual abuser Shadow Weaver, using her self sacrificial nature against her, etc. And beyond that she was consistently shown as a ruthless and power hungry despot-wannabe. But Adora loves her because... cat ears?

If anything, Catradora was Catra’s reward for switching sides. If Catra was a male character, everyone would be able to see the two reductive narratives attached to her: 1) rewarded with a girlfriend for showing basic decency and 2) “(s)he is pulling on your pigtails because (s)he likes you”.

Are toxic masculinity tropes okay when it’s a girl and/or when it’s gay?

The worst of it was when the narrative treated Catra as the one that cares the most about Adora and her needs/wants. Because that honestly sounds a lot more like Bow, Glimmer and honestly a whole lot of other characters that didn’t crash reality because they couldn’t deal with Adora being right about something.

If this seriously was the plan from the beginning, then they suck at writing healthy relationships.

To be perfectly clear, I don’t need my queer representation to be sugary sweet without any conflicts whatsoever. But I do need to believe that they actually like and care for each other. I do need to believe that they make each other better, and that the give-and-take is even. If you want toxic queer rep we’ve got a substantial backlog of that already as most early queer rep was only allowed if it was wrong somehow. (Predatory lesbians, cross dressing villains, male villain crushing on male hero, etc.) Showing the same and/or worse wrongness but saying it’s right now, isn’t progress.

I think that’s about it. Got most of it out of my system. (I mean I could do a comparison between Catra and Kyle Ron, where the major difference is that her childhood abuse wasn’t just a fanon invention.) But I just want to move on from this show. Glad I never dipped more than a casual toe in the fandom, so cutting it out won’t be a hardship.

I don’t disagree with anything in OP’s post. 

But the fandom is so, so, so much MORE than just the Catradora ship. 

Yes, they are the main ship, and yes, a large majority of the fandom does ship them. But there are so many other things in the show and in the fandom to share and enjoy. 

We have people of color as central cast and they’re all alive (and happy) at the end. We have a canon autistic woman who’s autism is not played for comic relief or treated like a joke, in fact, she’s one of the most formidable characters. We have a disable man who lives with his physical limitations and still becomes a powerful force in-universe. 

Every single end-game ship shown on-screen in the final episode is an interracial ship. 

We have more than one canon gay ship. If you don’t like Catradora that’s fine. They're not your only option. We also have Spinerella/Nettossa, Bow’s dad, Kyle/Rogelio, and Scorpia/Perfuma. All of whom are healthy, supportive relationships with good communication. 

The SPOP series is “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”, not the “Catradora Show”. There is much more to it than just Catra’s power struggles with Adora, and there is much more to enjoy in the fandom than people gushing over them being endgame. 

I’m not a big fan of Catraadora either, but I’m not gonna abandon the fandom because of them. There is so, so, so much other wonderful stuff in SPOP to love and celebrate. I’m not gonna let one poorly handled and poorly depicted ship spoil the rest of it for me. 

Its not Vore if it’s not sexual. DT has sharp teeth, why couldn’t they have eaten Flutterina?