Lilith

My Catradora Drawings

Love me my lesbians

i think it’s interesting how adora and catra’s different forms of abuse affect their outlook on humanity; catra doesn’t really believe that there’s good in the world as a whole and is in constant state of self-preservation so she doesn’t care to fight for what’s seen as morally right most of the show, adora has complete faith in world but none in herself when it’s not tied to other people & values pretty much any good civilian/person’s life over her own. she’s always willing to die for a good cause and puts what other people want above her own wants. they’re both very extreme but only grow from that as they come back together. catra remembers the positives in her relationship with adora and realizes that she always cared about her, then begins to do the right thing because while there’s bad in the world, there’s also good. she doesn’t have to shut herself off from everyone and align herself with an oppressive regime to be safe as there’s safety in connection and humanity. her relationship with adora isn’t perfect and bad things still happen but she continues to do the right thing and protect her + other rebellion members out of love and knowing that despite her own extensive pain, good still exists in people and etheria can and Deserves to be salvaged. after adora allows herself to fight for catra again and express her love she breaks fully the confines of her controlled destiny as she-ra. for the first time in the show she allows herself to consistently want things that aren’t related to her duty. and once she hears that catra loves her there’s a push to believing in herself once again as she doesn’t need to martyr herself to matter to other people, she can just exist as herself in order to be loved and that can co-exist with her love for the world and it’s inhabitants neither one coming before the other.

It’s also perfect for the dynamics they both played in the abuse they faced. Catra took the actual brute force of Shadow Weaver being awful and was constantly being humiliated, threatened, and tortured. She had to recognize that every move she made mattered and that even small slip ups and mistakes would lead to huge loss and pain, so she didn’t have time to consider if something was ethically or morally sound. She just needed to worry about if it was going to get her in trouble or not.

Meanwhile Adora was the golden child. She had to watch awful things happen to Catra and do her absolute best to calm Shadow Weaver down and please her, as to stop Catra from more pain. A literal savior. She also got a ton of survivors guilt, shown in the show with lots of flashback scenes where she is spared from the hate and pain that Catra is forced through.

I just love how well the development and thought processes are done in this show for the two, and how it allows for us to understand their reasoning while still being a step away from it and knowing it isn’t reasonable.