Catra And Glimmer - Moments Of Truth

Catra and Glimmer - Moments of Truth

The episode “moment of truth” is a major turning point in both Glimmer and Catra’s arcs. They both get their own moments of truth in the episode, but both are framed very differently despite the episode making it clear they both made the wrong choice.

First up is Glimmer. There are two scenes in this episode that can be viewed as her moment of truth. The first is when she initially goes to shadow weaver who persuades Glimmer to free her through the promise of power and the second is when Glimmer actually takes Shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone to the fright zone.

For the first one shading is the biggest motif used. The more glimmer considers shadow weaver’s offer the more bathed in shadow she becomes. Glimmer is partially covered in darkness and partially covered in light. Bow is shown on her left completely covered in light while shadow weaver is in the shadows on her right. This is reminiscent of the angel and devil on someone’s shoulders.

 And in this case the devil on her shoulder wins. Shadow weaver tells Glimmer that she has near limitless potential and guarantees she can help Glimmer obtain power. This is ultimately what gets Glimmer to free shadow weaver, step into the shadows, and take her hand.

The second instance and the one that is framed the most as Glimmer’s moment of truth comes when she is on the rooftop and makes the final decision to take shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone into the fright zone. The entire scene is framed very sinister using dark colors to emphasize this point. The music called “moment of truth” swells as shadow weaver holds out her hand and Glimmer takes it. Glimmer doesn’t know this is her moment of truth. She doesn’t know that she is making the wrong decision, but the audience does.

Catra’s is framed as the exact opposite.The lighting is much brighter and the music quiets when she pulls the lever. 

The same music that played during Glimmer’s moment of truth plays during the buildup to this moment not for the actual moment. Catra knows her decision is wrong and I believe this was framed from Adora’s perspective. This was a chilling moment of realization for Adora. This is shown through the quiet music. Adora is shocked, everything outside of this moment is being blocked out and the brighter lighting is used to similar effect and emphasize her realization. In this moment any hope that she had of being able to personally get through to Catra was squashed. Catra made the decision to pull the lever in spite of Adora’s warnings. The look of horror on Adora’s face tells the audience all they need to know about how this moment effected her.

The Last of Us Part II Review (minor spoilers)

I just finished the last of us part 2 and I want to start off by saying I think everyone should give this game a shot. A lot of the spoilers are taken really out of context and I think you should play the game through and decide for yourself how you feel about the finished product.

Now to the review (there will be minor spoilers, but no big story beats will be revealed)

This game managed to take all my expectations and flip them on their head. It's a deeply moving tale about guilt, grief, revenge, and redemption and none of those came in the form that I came in expecting. I saw a lot of people upset after the leaks surfaced and deciding they didn't want to play the game, but I strongly encourage you to play this and see how it plays out in its entirety. The story hit me in a way I wasn't expecting and it is my favorite first play through experience. 

I came into this game expecting a rather straightforward revenge story, but of course that wasn’t all I got. The biggest strength is that you get to play as both Ellie and Abby. You see both of their perspectives and everything that led them to this point. I can honestly say that I wanted both of them to break free of the cycle of violence and find peace. The expansion of our viewpoint is what elevates the story from very good to great. It was a bit jarring to have the viewpoint change because unlike in the Last of Us I wasn’t expecting to play a level as someone other than our main protagonist, let alone the character I initially thought of as the villain. I have never been so happy to be wrong. This shift in perspective really made me rethink everything I had done in the game as Ellie. It made it so that when Ellie and Abby fought or were close to confrontation I was worried for both of them. I didn't want either to lose or win over the other. And, without getting into anything, it made it so that the ending was so much more impactful. I don’t know if I’ve been that invested in the final section of gameplay in any game I’ve played before except for maybe the first game. The Last of Us Part II is a game I won’t forget.

Adora, Catra, and Glimmer and their Relationships to Destiny

She-ra covers a lot of topics in surprising depth, but the one I want to talk about right now is it’s dissection on destiny. It takes a long hard look at the topic through it’s three female leads Catra, Adora, and Glimmer. It’s surprising how much overlap there is and how each character is used as a direct foil to the others in regards to the show’s exploration of destiny.

Adora

Adora has a complicated relationship with destiny. Throughout the series until the series finale she has continually followed false destinies first with shadow weaver and the horde then with she-ra and light hope then finally with the failsafe. Adora has had false destinies forced upon her and she feels she has no way out, that she can’t refuse the call. She actually feels secure in knowing she has a destiny. It’s a path to follow, a purpose, and without a purpose what’s the point of her? At least that’s what she believes. She places her entire self worth on what she can do for other people to the point of self destruction. She is willing to answer the call no matter the cost even if it’s not what she wants. But Adora was never meant to succeed in any of her false destinies. It was always someone else using her for their own gain. All of her sacrifice would be for nothing.

 Her breaking the sword in destiny isn’t her refusing the call. She believes her purpose is to protect etheria and those she cares about and by breaking the sword she is “killing” a part of herself to answer that call. Just like how she left the one person she cared most about and her entire life behind to answer that same call in the pilot. Just like her taking on the failsafe and accepting her, what she believes to be, inevitable death. In a weird way every time she rejects the call from someone else (shadow weaver, light hope, the first ones, etc) she is leaning harder into the idea of her purpose and sacrifice defining who she is, which is in and of itself a false destiny and self fulfilling prophecy that almost gets Adora killed time and time again. 

Adora is never given a choice in any of her other false destinies (in fact she was actively conditioned to believe that she had no choice by shadow weaver and light hope. Adora was made to believe that she was meant to answer a higher call and neglect her own needs and wants) so she feels that the call to protect etheria and her friends isn’t a choice either. To Adora it’s the reason she exists. She is what she can do for other people. She is stuck in her own cycle of service and sacrifice that was forced upon her by shadow weaver and others.

Catra

Catra, like Adora, follows a destiny she thinks has been forced upon her. She feels the role of the villain is her only choice. At first it was a role forced onto her by shadow weaver then it became a way to prove to everyone she felt hurt her and didn’t believe in her that she was capable, that she was strong, but then the farther she went the more she believed that there was no other path for her. She felt she had to continue because she had gone too far to turn back and so she had to make something of it all. She felt she was proving shadow weaver, the source of her trauma, wrong by gaining power and relevance within the horde and etheria, but also that she was proving shadow weaver right, that she was a horrible, good for nothing person that only hurts those around her. She felt trapped within this destiny (the cycle of abuse and violence). 

She continues to double down and claw her way up to the top which culminates in her defeat of Hordak. She is the sole leader of the horde, she has clawed her way up and defeated all of those that were above her, and yet she has lost everything. She has lost everyone who ever actually cared about her and to make matters worse the power she strove after all these seasons was decimated in one fell swoop by Glimmer mainly because of her own actions (though Glimmer’s plan was smart). Glimmer would not have been successful if Catra hadn’t overworked the troops, been lying to Hordak, sent Entrapta to beast island, pushed Scorpia away, put faith in double trouble who she knows is hired help who knows no loyalties, and taken even a little bit of care of herself. It’s in this moment where she’s at her lowest that she is given the brutal and (only partially true because shadow weaver was definitely not pushed away by her. Shadow weaver just sucks.) eye opening speech by double trouble. 

Catra has fallen victim to her own self-fulfilling prophecy just like Adora does during the series. Both had these cycles/destinies forced upon them by shadow weaver and her abuse and can’t see a way out. They feel they have to continue down their respective paths of self destruction because it’s their only choice

Glimmer

Glimmer isn’t like Catra or Adora. She never had a destiny forced upon her, but she wanted one. She wanted to be the hero, to save all of etheria. Glimmer wants glory and power. This isn’t to say that Glimmer is a bad person, far from it in fact, just that she has shortcomings that blinded her to the truth: that she didn’t have a destiny, but that doesn’t make anything she does less meaningful than what Adora does. 

A large part of her season 4 arc is about her clashing with Adora over her feeling as though Adora is failing in her destiny and won’t take the necessary steps to win, but that she can. Adora isn’t willing to use the dirty tactics to beat the horde, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to use all of her resources like shadow weaver, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to fire off the heart of etheria, but she is. Because of all of this Glimmer starts to believe in her own way that Adora is failing as the hero and in her destiny and if that’s the case Glimmer will take that destiny. Adora is meant to finish off the horde by activating the heart of Etheria and since she won’t Glimmer takes that destiny from her. There is a conflicting mix of anger, desperation, pain, and pride that push her to do this, but it still all ends with her going to light hope to take Adora’s destiny for herself and her using Catra’s tactics to take the horde down from the inside. 

She in a way takes the forced destinies of Catra and Adora on for herself. She believes, like Catra, that she has to make it all worth it, all the loss her and her people have gone through, which is what leads her down her spiral like how it led Catra down her spiral this same season. 

How it all concludes in the 5th season

As I’ve said above all of their struggles with destiny come to a head in season 4’s finale. Glimmer in taking on the destinies of others ends up making a grave mistake that almost ends the world and universe. Adora effectively “kills” she-ra to answer her calling to protect etheria. Catra has climbed her way to the top of the horde, but has lost all the power she thought she wanted and had to strive for at the same time. All of these in their own way subvert the expectations of each character and force them to take a hard look in season 5 at themselves and their destiny. 

Catra is forced into a situation where she is effectively powerless and is faced with the same decision she had at the end of season 3. This time she decides to take action against destroying the universe. She hasn’t erased her mistakes, but has shown that she has grown from them. In this decision she has started to break free from the cycle she was stuck in. It isn’t until the episode “Taking Control” that she fully starts to break the cycle. She makes the decision to live and face her mistakes instead of die or run from them. This is Catra breaking free from her destiny. It’s through facing her mistakes that Catra is able to grow and become the person she always was instead of the person she felt she had to be. Catra’s struggle with destiny was always that she felt she had to be someone else, that it was the only way to protect herself and prove others wrong. It’s through actual acceptance, care, and compassion shown to her that she is able to break free from this mindset. Obviously the journey isn’t over, it’s something she will always have to work on, but she has made significant strides and wants to continue making them. Her destiny is her own choosing.

Adora is a bit more difficult because she backslides in a big way in the fifth season. She starts out the season having difficulty adjusting to no longer having her destiny as she-ra and she seems to come to terms with the absence of this destiny by the time she leaves earth. And in “Save the Cat'' she actively goes against her calling and destiny she believes she has to follow. She puts saving Catra above the universe. She won’t leave the ship without Catra and the odds of her getting out, especially without she-ra, were practically non-existent and she knew this going in. This is the first time in the series that Adora really makes a choice that is for herself not her calling. This ironically is what brings back she-ra, one of her false destinies, but this time she-ra is a manifestation of Adora and her will, not that false destiny. Once Adora returns to Etheria and is faced with the failsafe and shadow weaver she backslides back into a false destiny pushed onto her by shadow weaver. She takes on the failsafe and decides that being sacrificed is a better outcome than letting horde prime get the heart. She is fully prepared to die and Catra sees this. Catra becomes the first person to ask Adora what it is that she wants. Adora can’t answer. Her needs and wants are unimportant next to her destiny. “It was always going to end like this.” To Adora this end was inevitable. But then Catra comes back and decides to stay with her when she activates the failsafe. It’s in this moment of selfless love from Catra that Adora is able to break free from the coffin of her abuse and reach for what she wants. In doing so she is able to break the cycle of service and sacrifice. She has let herself want to live and have a future which is what saves her. It’s what lets her break free from her destiny.

Glimmer is once again different. She doesn’t have a destiny to break free from. But from taking on the false destinies of Catra and Adora Glimmer is able to gain perspective that she didn’t before. She understands to a much greater degree what drove Catra to where she is now. Their similarities are no longer a point of contention but rather a point of connection. The new perspective Glimmer has allows her to reach out to Catra and see the potential for good that she was so adamant didn’t exist in earlier seasons. She’s able to see the shades of grey within people unlike before (ex. “Bad people don’t change” in the price of power). It allows herself to see her own flaws with much more clarity such as her desire for power and glory, jealousy, quick temper, etc and grow. She’s able to see the shades of grey within herself. This also allows her to accept that she doesn’t have a destiny, but her actions are just as important as anyone else’s. It doesn’t negate all the good she’s done or will do. This allows her to find the power within herself to defeat her father and protect all the princesses in the final battle with horde prime. Glimmer isn’t defined by this lack of destiny. It’s an interesting foil to Catra and Adora who always felt trapped within destinies. Glimmer felt trapped because of her lack of one like she was limited because of it, but it’s once she discovers that she isn’t, that she can create her own path, that she’s able to create her biggest positive impacts which is rather fitting.

Breaking Free of the Vines - Telling an Emotional Journey Through Music

The music starts out sad and loud while the vines are covering her. She is still fighting and the music becomes louder the more of her allies get taken by the vines while she still fights. 

It quiets as the fight in Adora starts to die down and it almost completely goes away once Adora gives in and says “I can’t do this on my own”. 

The music is still soft, but it shifts to Angella’s leitmotif and flashbacks to her sacrifice and everything that came after. Angella’s sacrifice is a huge motivating factor in this season and, while for most of the season it has been a source of Adora and Glimmer’s rift and respective spirals, in this moment Adora is realizing she can’t let it be in vain. Adora can’t give up on the people she cares about or herself because Angella’s last speech to her was about how Adora is the one who inspired her not she-ra and that it is Adora who makes she-ra a hero not the other way around. It’s Adora finally realizing what Angella really meant with her final speech instead of her guilt clouding her interpretation.

 The music grows in volume and turns triumphant when Adora snaps out of it and overcomes the signal to transform and save her friends. The music isn’t she-ra’s theme. It’s Adora’s theme because, while Adora does transform into she-ra in this moment, Adora’s own will is what overcomes the vines not she-ra’s power.

Dororo (2019) The Tale of the Nue- Conflict of the Want and Need

The Tale of Nue is actually a great episode to watch for an example of character writing and the conflict of want and need they go through in an arc. This is a great example of a setback in a character’s arc. They do this by making it seem like the need necessitates the want. We see Hyakkimaru start to get and realize what he needs, connection and an understanding of others through his interaction with Dororo at the beginning of the episode. The lack that he has seems to have eased because of Dororo. The conflict of the episode creates a clash between the want and the need by having Dororo be in trouble and Hyakkimaru be unable to save her because of the limits of his prosthetics. If he had his real arms he would have been able to save Dororo. This makes him lean even more into his lie that to fill the lack he needs his real body. This pushes him even further into his descent than before despite being so close to discovering what he really needs. 

Kipo Season 2 Review

I know this is late, but better late than never right?

Every cartoon I’ve watched on Netflix that dreamworks made has blown me away. Kipo has managed to continue their streak of fantastic cartoons. I got to Kipo season 1 late and only saw it a few weeks before season 2 dropped. I’m really glad I did because the wait would have been unbearable. Kipo has an inventive world with a lot of potential, fun characters that I enjoy every time they are on screen, a great soundtrack, and beautiful animation. There were some things in Kipo season 1 that I wish were expanded upon and I think a lot of them were addressed with the 2nd season. Kipo still has a lot of room to grow, but it has all the building blocks to be a great show and seems to be heading there. Dreamworks is probably my favorite animation company. I have been very happy with everything they have released recently.

Characters

I think I have to start with Scarlemage.  He was built up perfectly in the first season and I really liked the payoff. Dreamworks always has a knack for writing villains be it for their movies or their tv shows and they’ve once again created a very interesting and fun villain. Scarlemagne managed to be fun and sympathetic yet disturbing throughout the season. And while I’m typically all for redemption arcs I liked that he didn’t get one in this season. I think him not changing in the way kipo wanted was a learning moment for both her and her father. For her father it showed him his greatest flaw, giving up on people/things too soon, and how damaging that can be. For Kipo it showed her that as much as she may want to believe in the best in everything that’s not how it will always work out. I think these are major lessons that will effect the characters moving forward. My favorite villains are the ones who challenge the hero’s worldview and that’s what Scarlemagne does. Scarlemagne himself was very compelling this season and I do believe that while he wasn’t redeemed this season there is the possibility for change in the future. 

I got chills every time his musical motif played. I loved the logic behind his obsession with classical music and clothes. How it initially stemmed from his innocent wonder. I think it’s fascinating how in one episode everything we knew about Scarlemagne was flipped on its head. There was a sort of tragic inevitability to his “villain’s journey”. It was all born from one choice on the side of Kipo’s father that was completely understandable from his perspective, but heartbreaking from Scarlemagne’s perspective. (I’m also a big fan of tragic villains where there’s one choice or factor that makes it so that them and the hero can’t see eye to eye)

Kipo: 

I like Kipo as a main character. She isn’t my favorite main character and I chalk a lot of that up to the fact that until the second half of this season her worldview wasn’t really challenged all that much. She was constantly proven right again and again which I think was framed really well for a large part of the first season. It’s because she doesn’t have any preconceived biases against mutes that she is able to find common ground and see the best in everyone, but this view that everyone is good and that everyone can change isn’t challenged in any meaningful way until Scarlemagne and even then we won’t get to see the fallout of that until season 3. More experienced humans like Benson and Wolf are show to have distrust of mutes and we see in Wolf’s backstory exactly why and yet despite having much more experience with mutes and living on the surface the second Kipo comes along everything they previously thought and experienced is proven wrong. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. Again I think with this season we are starting to see a shift away from that. Kipo has just seen that her philosophy isn’t always correct with mutes and I would assume with how the season ended next season will deal with her coming to that realization about humans as well.

I think Kipo has a lot of room to grow as a character. And they seem to be taking steps to address the problems I had with her. I want to once again emphasize that I do like her. There are just things that I would like for them to address in the future. (also it’s nice to hear Glimmer’s VA again)

Wolf:

Wolf is the character I am intrigued by the most. Her past, while only briefly explored in flashbacks, was hard hitting. The fade from her attacking the mother wolf to the wolf skin she had on her head was chilling. Everything we learn about her childhood is fascinating because I like hearing about how she survived on the surface alone. It’s an interesting concept because unlike Kipo she had to adapt from a young age to survive, but she was left with little to no people skills and attachment issues because of it. She was the main character who had the most room to grow in my opinion and, while her arc may be predictable, I like how it has been handled so far. I do want more information about her past and maybe a run in with some of the wolves that betrayed her (I have a hard time believing that she killed all of them). I just think there is a lot of untapped story potential with her character and I was a little sad that outside of episode 4 and the finale she took a lot more of a backseat compared to the first season. Though it was understandable considering how much they had to cover in a 10 episode timespan.

Benson:

Benson was given more to do this season, but still took a bit of a backseat. His relationship with Kipo isn’t given nearly as much attention as Kipo’s relationship with Wolf. I would like a Benson backstory because there is still so much left up to the viewers imagination about everything he went through pre-series. He’s a really fun character that I wish were utilized to his full potential. He has a fun dynamic with just about every character he interacts with and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future. I also like his blooming romance with Troy. It was really sweet and funny.

World

Kipo’s world is actually what drew me to this show in the first place. It was a unique take on the post apocalyptic mutant world and I was excited to see where they would take it. I really liked the worldbuilding and how unique each mutant society was and how they managed to very even the burrow cities. This world is just rich with so much wonder and potential. There are still a lot of questions like “What caused the apocalypse?”, “Did the mutes cause the apocalypse or did the apocalypse create the mutes?”, “How did society evolve the way it did?”, “How can it evolve from here?”. I am so intrigued by everything about it. The worldbuilding is probably the strongest point in the show. 

Music

That being said, the music is a very close second. The score and soundtrack of Kipo is one that you can just pop on and listen to whenever you want. I don’t think there’s anything I can really say about the music other than it’s great and reminds me of spider verse with how the music is used in the story and how each type of music associated with a character tells you a lot about who they are. It does just about everything that I feel music should do in the audio-visual medium. It’s really amazing.

Overall

I’m a really big fan of this show. I have a lot of fun anytime I put it on. While it isn’t my favorite of the dreamworks cartoons I still find it to be amazing. It manages to have moments and episodes that hit me hard even on a rewatch. There’s just so much creativity and heart put into this show. I really want to see more of it because with how the show is going and growing I believe that a lot of my questions and problems will be addressed. I hope others can find the enjoyment out of Kipo that I do.